ABSTRACT
Violence perpetrated against women is a global phenomenon that is a shared experience of women and girls across historical periods, countries, and cultures. The conflicts in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s brought renewed focus to genocide as a heinous crime committed during armed conflict, with belated acknowledgement that women were exposed to particular forms of genocide, including rape and sexual violence. Because of this omission, the UN human rights treaty bodies, also known as committees, with responsibility for overseeing the implementation of treaty obligations by states parties have sought to incorporate violence against women as an issue of concern by applying gendered interpretations to existing provisions. This chapter explores how the concepts of equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex have been interpreted generally as well as how they have been applied to various forms of violence against women by the UN human rights treaty bodies.
