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

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WOMEN’S ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 101
Article 2(d): Public authorities’ role in respecting nondiscrimination
Article 2(d) of the CEDAW Convention requires States to refrain
from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against
women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions
act in conformity with this obligation.
The CEDAW Convention requires that States, including all
organs of the state and at all levels of government, do not
discriminate in their behaviour towards women. In relation to
gender-based violence, this means that States must not
commit acts of gender-based violence: where State agents
perpetrate violence against women, which causes severe pain
or suffering, whether physical or mental, the State is guilty of
torture.
States are under an obligation, including under the ICCPR and
Convention against Torture, 256 to criminalize torture and illtreatment
and bring to justice those responsible.
“Breach of the prohibition against torture and other illtreatment
attracts state responsibility (a) to investigate
the facts even, in the case of torture and perhaps also in
the case of ill-treatment, in the absence of a specific
complaint from the alleged victim; (b) to bring to justice
those responsible (including through, at least in the case
of torture, criminal proceedings); and (c) to provide
reparations to the victim.” 257
256
Human Rights Committee, General Comment No 31, “The Nature of
the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the
Covenant”, UN Doc CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.13 (2004), paragraphs 8
and 18; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture),
Article 4.
257
Nigel Rodley and Matt Pollard, The Treatment of Prisoners under
International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3 rd Ed, 2009),
page 194.