I N T E G R AT I N G A G E N D E R P E R S P E C T I V E I N T O H U M A N R I G H T S I N V E S T I G AT I O N S • G U I D A N C E A N D P R A C T I C E III Violations or abuses that appear to affect mainly men, such as enforced disappearances, torture or extrajudicial killing, can also significantly affect women and have gender-specific impacts.50 The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment have recognized several gender-specific aspects of disappearances and torture.51 Similarly, in its 2015 report on enforced disappearances and economic, social and cultural rights, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances emphasizes that “although women and children represent a minority of the disappeared, their rights are disproportionately affected when this violation takes place”.52 Women whose husbands have disappeared are often ostracized by the community because their husbands are accused (sometimes falsely) of crimes, or because people fear associating with someone who has been the target of an enforced disappearance. Women who are forcibly disappeared can also face specific health concerns, including in relation to their sexual and reproductive health and rights if they are pregnant or may become pregnant while in detention and disappeared. When women are held in detention facilities that do not provide the required care, including in relation to their sexual and reproductive health and rights, their right to health is also violated. In these circumstances, States have the obligation to establish special protection measures for women who are detained.53 For instance, looking at systemic gender-based crimes of violence against women through the lens of torture, the Special Rapporteur on torture qualified the failure of States to eliminate persistent practices such as intimate partner violence, child and forced marriage, female genital mutilation and so-called “honour crimes”, as well as the failure to criminalize marital rape and repeal legislation, including laws that exculpate rapists who marry their victims, as violations of the obligation to prevent and prosecute torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. See In-depth study on all forms of violence against women: Report of the Secretary-General, A/61/122/Add.1, para. 143. 50 For a detailed analysis on women and enforced disappearances, see General comment on women affected by enforced disappearances adopted by the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, A/HRC/WGEID/98/2/2013. For a detailed analysis on women and torture, see Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on the applicability of the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in international law to the unique experiences of women, girls, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, A/HRC/31/57. 51 Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Study on enforced or involuntary disappearances and economic, social and cultural rights, A/HRC/30/38/Add.5, para. 20. 52 Ibid., para. 21. 53 44