50 GENDER PERSPECTIVES ON TORTURE: Law and Practice violence against anyone, including women. Equally, the family unit exists in different forms in every society across the globe. The family is known as a site of love, affection AND of violence. Where the State has knowledge that the family is a site of violence, the State is obligated to provide the means for real, transformative redress, including holding perpetrators to account. However, when it comes to violence against women, I would agree with Merry, “CEDAW is law without sanctions” (p.165, 2006) and therefore an international convention specifically addressing violence against women is needed. An international instrument could address the form any meaningful redress should take (for example, reparation, truth telling (for latter see de Londras, 2007), etc. (Study of the Secretary-General, 2006)). Filling this normative gap in one document is a key indi­ cator of the commitment of the international community to women and girls. If the international community and States within it take no effective action, Derrida might argue that these crimes are taking place under the auspices of legal organization (2001). Or maybe it is as Arendt wrote in 1970, that “there is a general reluctance to deal with violence as a phenomenon in its own right” (p. 35). We would qualify this statement by adding ‘this is especially evident when dealing with violence against women and girls’. References Amnesty International. (2016). Surviving death police and military torture of women in Mexico. London, UK: Author. Arendt, H. (1970). On violence. Orlando, USA: Harecourt, Brace & Company. Ashworth, A., & Zedner, L. (2014). Preventive justice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. A.T. v. Hungary (Communication No. 2/2003, views adopted by the CEDAW Committee on January 26 2005, Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, 32nd Session, UN Doc. A/60/38 (Part I) 27 (2006). Bamber, H., & Korzinski, M. (2007). Addressing the health implications of torture: The task of the therapists (73-77). In Office of the High Commission for Human Rights, 25 Years rebuilding lives United Nations voluntary fund for victims of torture. Geneva, CH: United Nations. Boerefjin, I., & Naezer, E. (2008). Emerging human rights obligations for non-state actors. In C. Benninger-Budel (Ed.), Due diligence and its application to protect women from violence (91-109). Leiden, NL: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. Bettinger-Lόpez, C. (2008). Jessica Gonzales v. United States: An emerging model for domestic vio­ lence & human rights advocacy in the United States. Harvard Human Rights Journal, 21, 183-195. Boyle, A. (2014). Soft law in international law-making. In M. D. Evans (Ed.), International law. Fourth edition (118-136). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Brownmiller, S. (1990). Against our will Men, women and rape. Toronto, Ont.: Bantam Books. Canadian Panel on Violence Against Women. (1993). Changing the landscape: Ending violence ~ Achieving equality. Ottawa, Ont.: Minister of Supply and Services. Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. (2008). Torture of Canadian women by non-state actors in the pri­ vate sphere: A shadow report (Nova Scotia Chapter). Retrieved from http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/ Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CEDAW_NGO_CAN_42_8225_E.pdf CEDAW. (2005). Report on Mexico, UN doc. CEDAW/C/2005/PO.8/MEXICO. Centre for Human Rights. (2009). The committee against torture fact sheet no. 17. Geneva, CH: United Nations.