the rights of rural women”11 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in order to cover all aspects relevant to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in rural areas. A total of 38 NHRIs participated in the survey. APF and GANHRI would like to thank all participating NHRIs for having responded to their call for input. The examples featuring in this report were chosen from amongst the responses in order to showcase the widest variety possible of strategies and actions conducted by NHRIs to promote gender equality and empowerment for women and girls in rural areas12. However, it should be noted that this report does not represent a comprehensive study of all the work of NHRIs in relation to women and girls living in rural areas. It provides some information on the types of activities and issues that NHRIs are engaging in and, as such, serves as a resource for the side event on the role of NHRIs in promoting the rights of women and girls living in rural areas, co-sponsored by APF and GANHRI as well as several member states, to be held at CSW 62 on 16 March 2018. 2. OVERARCHING ASPECTS 2.1 AN INTERSECTING FORM OF DISCRIMINATION While highlighting the particularity of the experiences of women living in rural areas, Article 14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)13 clearly states that all of the provisions of CEDAW apply to women living in rural areas. Like women living in urban areas, they are thus to be protected against all forms of discrimination, in all areas of life. In this respect, it is important to note that all of the NHRIs who participated in the survey affirmed that they work on women’s rights in general. 14 institutions declared to have a commissioner or ombudsperson responsible for women’s rights, 16 institutions indicated that a specific department, division or unit within their institutions is responsible for women’s rights and 20 institutions have a focal person for women’s rights14. Half of all respondent NHRIs (19) reported that all of the institution’s units worked on women’s rights. Some institutions, for example the NHRI of Algeria, stressed that they adopt a gender perspective in all of their activities. For women and girls living in rural areas, discrimination may stem from multiple sources. It may be due to gender bias, result from their geographical location or stem from an intersection of both gender and rurality. In order to adequately capture the barriers these women and girls face, several NHRIs embrace an intersectional approach to human rights work in general or women’s rights work more specifically. For example, the Australian NHRI reports that its Sex Discrimination Commissioner identified a commitment to intersectionality as one of three specific focus areas for her policy and advocacy work. On a practical level, the NHRI of the Philippines requires that the struggles of women facing multiple or intersecting forms of discrimination have to be investigated and addressed using rights-based protocols. While the NHRI of Nepal does not explicitly mention intersectionality in its response, it in fact specifically monitors the situation of women facing intersecting forms of discrimination, such as women in rural areas, Muslim women or Dalit women. The NHRIs of France and of Guatemala also mention their efforts towards capturing intersectionality in all areas of their work. The role of NHRIs in monitoring the intersecting forms of discrimination and the barriers faced by women and girls living in rural areas is essential for the promotion and protection of the rights of 11 UN Doc CEDAW/C/GC34, online: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/INT_CEDAW_GEC_7933_E.pdf. 12 The NHRIs of Bahrain and Qatar indicated that they do not work on this issue because there are no rural areas in their respective countries. 13 Online: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm. 14 For many NHRIs, multiple answers applied. 4