Universal-Womens-accesss-to-justice-Publications-Practitioners-Guide-Series-2016-ENG

V
WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 97
rights in practice. 239 The Committee has interpreted this as
requiring a general anti-discrimination law, covering both direct
and indirect discrimination in all areas of the CEDAW
Convention, not just laws in specific areas such as
employment. 240
Reference within Article 2(b) to “other measures” may include
national action plans that address all relevant State actors and
mandate positive action to implement women’s human rights.
The Council of Europe’s Convention on Preventing and
Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (the
Istanbul Convention) places an obligation on States to ensure
that they have comprehensive and coordinated policies, 241
supervised and managed by one or more coordinating
institutions, 242 and that are provided with appropriate human
239
CEDAW General Recommendation No 28, above note 229,
paragraph 31.
240
Marsha Freeman, Christine Chinkin and Beate Rudolf, The UN
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women. A Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) –
hereafter referred to as the ‘CEDAW Commentary’, page 83.
241
Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating
violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention)
of 11 May 2011, Article 7 (Comprehensive and co-ordinated policies):
“1) Parties shall take the necessary legislative and other measures to
adopt and implement State-wide effective, comprehensive and coordinated
policies encompassing all relevant measures to prevent and
combat all forms of violence covered by the scope of this Convention
and offer a holistic response to violence against women.
“2) Parties shall ensure that policies referred to in paragraph 1 place
the rights of the victim at the centre of all measures and are
implemented by way of effective co-operation among all relevant
agencies, institutions and organisations.
“3) Measures taken pursuant to this article shall involve, where
appropriate, all relevant actors, such as government agencies, the
national, regional and local parliaments and authorities, national
human rights institutions and civil society organisations.”
242
Istanbul Convention, ibid, Article 10 (Co-ordinating body):
“1) Parties shall designate or establish one or more official bodies
responsible for the co-ordination, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of policies and measures to prevent and combat all forms of