CEDAW/C/GC/35
defenders, from their activities, practices and output, including in advertising,
online and in other digital environments. Measures should include the following:
(i) Encouraging the creation or strengthening of self-regulatory mechanisms
by media organizations, including online or social media organizations, aimed
at the elimination of gender stereotypes relating to women and men, or to
specific groups of women, and addressing gender-based violence against
women that takes place through their services and platforms;
(ii) Guidelines for the appropriate coverage by the media of cases of gender based violence against women;
(iii) Establishing or strengthening the capacity of national human rights
institutions to monitor or consider complaints regarding any media that portray
gender-discriminatory images or content that objectify or demean women or
promote violent masculinities; 56
(e) Provide mandatory, recurrent and effective capacity-building, education
and training for members of the judiciary, lawyers and law enforcement officers,
including forensic medical personnel, legislators and health -care professionals, 57
including in the area of sexual and reproductive health, in particular sexually
transmitted infections and HIV prevention and treatment services, and all education,
social and welfare personnel, including those working with women in institutions,
such as residential care homes, asylum centres and prisons, 58 to equip them to
adequately prevent and address gender-based violence against women. Such
education and training should promote understanding of the following:
(i) How gender stereotypes and bias lead to gender-based violence against
women and inadequate responses to it; 59
(ii) Trauma and its effects, the power dynamics that characterize intimate
partner violence and the varying situations of women experiencing diverse
forms of gender-based violence, which should include the intersecting forms
of discrimination affecting specific groups of women and adequat e ways of
interacting with women in the context of their work and eliminating factors
that lead to their revictimization and weaken their confidence in State
institutions and agents; 60
(iii) National legal provisions and national institutions on gender -based
violence against women, the legal rights of victims/survivors, international
standards and associated mechanisms and their responsibilities in that context,
which should include due coordination and referrals among diverse bodies and
the adequate documentation of such violence, giving due respect for women’s
privacy and right to confidentiality and with the free and informed consent of
the victims/survivors;
(f) Encourage, through the use of incentives and corporate responsibility
models and other mechanisms, the engagement of the private sector, including
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56
57
58
59
60
14/19
Concluding observations of the Committee on the combined periodic reports of Croatia
(CEDAW/C/HRV/CO/4-5).
See footnote 5 above and the World Health Organization clinical and policy guidelines on
responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women (2013).
See Abramova v. Belarus; communication No. 53/2013, A. v. Denmark, views adopted on
19 November 2015; and General Assembly resolution 65/229 on the United Nations Rules for the
Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok
Rules).
See, among others, Belousova v. Kazakhstan, R.P.B. v. Philippines, Jallow v. Bulgaria and L.R. v.
Republic of Moldova.
See M.W. v. Denmark, R.P.B. v. Philippines, Jallow v. Bulgaria and Kell v. Canada.
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