OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS
Elimination of violence against women
Human Rights Resolution 2005/41
The Commission on Human Rights,
Reaffirming that discrimination on the basis of sex is contrary to the Charter of the
United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international human
rights instruments, and that its elimination is an integral part of efforts towards the elimination
of violence against women and girls,
Reaffirming the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence against Women, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the
outcome of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled “Women 2000:
gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century”, and the Declaration
adopted at the forty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women,
Recalling all its previous resolutions on the elimination of violence against women, in
particular its resolution 1994/45 of 4 March 1994, in which it decided to appoint a
special rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, all
General Assembly resolutions relevant to elimination of violence against women, and
Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 on women, peace and security,
Reaffirming the responsibility of all States to put an end to impunity and prosecute
those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,
Recalling the inclusion of gender-related crimes and crimes of sexual violence in the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which affirms that rape, sexual slavery,
enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual
violence of comparable gravity constitute, in defined circumstances, a crime against humanity
and/or a war crime, and reiterating that acts of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict
can constitute serious violations or grave breaches of international humanitarian law,
Deeply concerned that all forms of discrimination, including racism, racial
discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and multiple or aggravated forms of
discrimination and disadvantage can lead to the particular targeting or vulnerability to
violence of girls and some groups of women, such as women belonging to minority groups,
indigenous women, refugee and internally displaced women, migrant women, women living
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