Foreword � Dr. Dubravka Šimonović* Violence against women endures, so long as societies ignore, accept, or tolerate such violence as a norm. In 2003, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights extended the Special Rapporteur for Violence Against Women’s mandate and affirmed that violence against women “impairs or nullifies” women’s enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms.1 As discrimination and inequality continue to make women vulnerable to violence, the fight to eliminate violence against women necessitates that certain violent acts be recognized as amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. As recently recognized in the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women’s General recommendation No. 35 on gen­ der-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19, in which I actively participated, “Gender-based violence against women may amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in certain circumstances […] in determining when acts of gender-based vio­ lence against women amount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, a gender-sensi­ tive approach is required to understand the level of pain and suffering experienced by women, and […] the purpose and intent requirements for classifying such acts as torture are satisfied when acts or omissions are gender-specific or perpetrated against a person on the basis of sex.”2 Women are often targets and victims of trafficking, sexual violence, femicide, mutilation, forced marriage and domestic violence, precisely because they are women. In his 2016 thematic report (A/ HRC/31/57), the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment highlighted the lack of gender perspectives in the torture and ill-treatment frame­ work. As the torture and ill-treatment framework developed in response to situations primarily affecting men, it largely failed to account for gender based discrimination, stereotypes, and power structures impacting female experiences with torture and ill-treatment. The Special Rapporteur’s report therefore concentrates on integrating gendered perspectives, including violence against women, into the torture and ill-treatment framework.3 Both States and private actors are capable of perpetrating violence against women. States’ obli­ gations to prevent and combat violence against women include not only the due diligence of inves­ tigating and punishing acts of violence against women, but requiring that services be provided to * Dubravka Šimonović is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences and is a Visiting Professor in Practice in the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Special Rapporteur is also a former member of the CEDAW Committee, serving as Chairperson in 2007 and 2008. 1 United Nations Commission on Human Rights Resolution 2003/45. 2 CEDAW General Recommendations No. 19 and 35 on gender-based violence against women. 3 A/HRC/31/57, ¶ 9 xv