Gigi Scoles and Anupama Selvam 5 II. Due Diligence Standard The due diligence standard is a complex standard within international human rights law.6 Though the principle can be derived from various international instruments,7 for the purposes of this article, the pertinent instruments we are referring to are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment (CAT).8 Both CEDAW and CAT require States to meet a due diligence standard in order to fulfill their treat obligations. Under CAT, due diligence is defined as the obligation of State Parties to prohibit, prevent, and redress torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture has interpreted this to include the duty to prevent, investigate, and punish gender-based violence.9 Similarly, under CEDAW due diligence requires States to protect against, investigate, punish and provide redress to eliminate discrimination against women.10 Though constructed slightly differently, both frame­ works require that State parties take steps to prevent, protect against, prosecute, punish and pro­ vide adequate redress where gender-based violence occurs.11 The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women adopted the concept of due diligence, establishing that under the due diligence obligation, States have a duty to take positive action to prevent and protect women from violence, punish perpetuators of violent acts and com­ pensate victims of violence.12 In CEDAW’s General Recommendation No. 19, CEDAW called on States to act with due diligence to prevent and respond to violence against women.13 This provision was reiterated in paragraph 125 (b) of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action.14 6 For a full and detailed analysis of the due diligence standard as it applies to gender-based violence, please refer to, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Yakin Ertürk, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences on the Due Diligence Standard as a Tool for the Elimination of Violence against Women, ¶ 44 U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2006/61, (Jan. 20, 2006), available at: http://www.refworld. org/docid/45377afb0.html; see also Zarizana Abdul Aziz and Janine Moussa, Due Diligence Framework: State Accountability Framework for Eliminating Violence against Women, International Human Rights Initiative, 2014. 7 See J. Hessbruegge, The Historical development of the doctrines of attribution and due diligence in international law, 36 New York Univ. Journal of Int’l Law, 265-306 (2004) (documenting the long history of the due diligence standard in international law that date back to Grotius and other seventeenth century writers); see also U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Yakin Ertürk, supra note 6 (stating that human rights bodies such as the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Human Rights Committee, the different special procedures of the Commission and regional human rights institutions have also elaborated on the requirements of the due diligence standard in relation to specific country situations as well as on a more general level. The standard of due diligence has been increasingly applied to various human rights issues ranging from trafficking in persons to the obligations of transnational corporations and other businesses). 8 See generally Convention on the elim ination of all form s of DisCrim ination against Wom en, December 1979, 1249 U.N.T.S. 13; see also Convention against torture anD other Cruel, inhum an or DegraDing treatm ent or Punishm ent, Dec. 10, 1984, 1465 U.N.T.S. 85. 9 See generally, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan E. Mendez, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/31/57, (Jan 5, 2016). 10 See UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19, 1992, A/47/38. 11 See Abdul Aziz and Moussa, supra note 6 at 11; See also U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Yakin Ertürk, supra note 6 at ¶ 19 (referring to slightly different wording/formulation of due diligence: prevent, investigate, punish and provide remedies for acts of violence regardless of whether these are committed by private or State actors). 12 U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Yakin Ertürk, supra note 6 at ¶ 14 13 UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), CEDAW General Recommendations No. 19, 1992, A/47/38. 14 United Nations, Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action, adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, 27 October 1995, A/CONF.177/20.