General Recommendation No. 35 on Gender-Based Violence against Women, Updating General Recommendation No. 19, Sixty-seventh Session (2017)

General recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence (GBV) against women updates general recommendation No. 19. The latter previously clarified that discrimination against women included GBV that is "violence which is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately," and that it constituted a violation of their human rights. The opinio juris and State practice suggest that the prohibition of gender-based violence against women has evolved into a principle of customary international law, with general recommendation No. 19 being a key catalyst for that process. Building on general recommendation No. 19, the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women urges state parties to strengthen the implementation of their obligations concerning GBV against women, within their territory or extraterritorially. The Committee also recommended that States parties take certain measures enumerated therein, in the areas of prevention, protection, prosecution and punishment, redress, data collection and monitoring, and international cooperation to accelerate the elimination of GBV against women. Such measures should be implemented with an approach centered around the victim/survivor, acknowledging women as rights holders and promoting their agency and autonomy, including the evolving capacity of girls, from childhood to adolescence.