DRAFT CEDAW General recommendation on Trafficking in
Women and Girls in the Context of Global Migration
miscarriages of justice preventing women from claiming their rights and access to effective
remedies.221
83.
States parties must have an effective and accessible legal services framework in
place to address all forms of gender-based violence against women committed by State
agents and non-State actors, whether on their territory or extraterritorially, that takes
into consideration the diversity of victims and the risks of intersecting forms of
discrimination. 222 Women must have access to education and information about their
rights and the remedies that are available and how to gain access to them. The remedies
must be affordable, accessible and timely, and women must be provided with free legal
aid, advice and representation in judicial and quasi-judicial processes in all fields of
law. 223 Alleged violations of women’s rights are to be settled in a fair hearing by a
competent and independent court or tribunal, where appropriate.224
84.
Ensure access to justice for all trafficking victims, including forcibly displaced
and migrant women, including those in an irregular situation:
a) Raise awareness about their rights under the Convention and its Optional
Protocol225, the legal provisions protecting them from trafficking and exploitation
and corresponding remedies to complain about violations of those rights; 226
b) Establish accessible legal aid systems and legal information sharing systems for
victims;227
c) Ensure that, in administrative and judicial proceedings, including detention and
expulsion proceedings, trafficking victims are guaranteed due process before the
courts;228
d) Develop comprehensive gender-sensitive policies, strategies and programmes
aimed at facilitating trafficking victims’ access to justice, while ensuring fair trial
guarantees;229
e) Design, implement and evaluate the impact of capacity-building programmes on
women’s rights and gender equality for lawyers, judges, prosecutors and police
officers;230
f) Repeal or amend laws that prevent any woman, including non-citizen women,
from using the courts and other systems of redress;
g) Particularly for non-citizen women, provide effective channels for seeking
protection and redress for violations of their rights by creating adequate
conditions to bring complaints, in a language that they can understand, against
their traffickers without fear of reprisals, arrest, detention or deportation;231
221
General recommendations: No. 33 (2015) (CEDAW/C/GC/33), para. 26; No. 33 (2015)
(CEDAW/C/GC/33), para. 7.
222
General recommendation No. 35 (2017) (CEDAW/C/GC/35), paras. 22-23.
223
General recommendation No. 35 (2017) (CEDAW/C/GC/35), para. 36.
224
General recommendations: No. 28 (2010) (CEDAW/C/GC/28), para. 34; No. 33 (2015)
(CEDAW/C/GC/33), paras. 11 and 32.
225
para. 72, CEDAW/C/SAU/CO/3-4; para. 11(b) CEDAW/C/NOR/CO/9.
226
para. 35(a), CEDAW/C/MDV/CO/4-5; para. 38(c), CEDAW/C/PHL/CO/7-8; para. 9(b),
CEDAW/C/CAN/CO/8-9; para. 44(c), CEDAW/C/ISL/CO/7-8.
227
para. 35(f), CEDAW/C/CAN/CO/8-9; para. 19(d), CEDAW/C/VEN/CO/7-8; para. 44(c),
CEDAW/C/ISL/CO/7-8.
228
para. 31(g), CEDAW/C/SAU/CO/3-4.
229
para. 16, CEDAW/C/ARE/CO/2-3.
230
para. 16, CEDAW/C/ARE/CO/2-3.
231
para. 40(c), CEDAW/C/ITA/CO/7; para. 30(g), CEDAW/C/AND/CO/2-3; para. 44,
CEDAW/C/JOR/CO/5; para. 26(e), CEDAW/C/QAT/CO/1; para. 34(f),CEDAW/C/NPL/CO/4-5; para.
44(c), CEDAW/C/IDN/CO/6-7; para. 27(d), CEDAW/C/NOR/CO/9; para. 21(b),
CEDAW/C/FIN/CO/7; para. 29(c), CEDAW/C/PRT/CO/8-9; para. 32,CEDAW/C/ARE/CO/2-3.
28
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