Part I The human rights of women and girls The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which oversees the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, has increasingly acknowledged the gender dimensions of racial discrimination and the vulnerability of women to multiple forms of discrimination.66 GENDER AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION The Committee notes that racial discrimination does not always affect women and men equally or in the same way. There are circumstances in which racial discrimination only or primarily affects women, or affects women in a different way, or to a different degree than men. Such racial discrimination will often escape detection if there is no explicit recognition or acknowledgement of the different life experiences of women and men, in areas of both public and private life. Certain forms of racial discrimination may be directed towards women specifically because of their gender, such as sexual violence committed against women members of particular racial or ethnic groups in detention or during armed conflict; the coerced sterilization of indigenous women; abuse of women workers in the informal sector or domestic workers employed abroad by their employers. Racial discrimination may have consequences that affect primarily or only women, such as pregnancy resulting from racial bias-motivated rape; in some societies women victims of such rape may also be ostracized. Women may also be further hindered by a lack of access to remedies and complaint mechanisms for racial discrimination because of gender-related impediments, such as gender bias in the legal system and discrimination against women in private spheres of life.66 3.3. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT The Rome Statute, adopted on 17 July 1988, established the permanent International Criminal Court. The Statute is the first international treaty to identify crimes against women as crimes against humanity, war crimes and, in some situations, genocide, when occurring in the context of an international or internal armed conflict and satisfying other criteria. These crimes against women include rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced sterilizations, sexual violence, gender-based persecutions and trafficking in persons.67 The Court is based on individual criminal responsibility. As such, it complements the responsibility of States under the international human rights treaties by holding individuals accountable for the crimes they commit. In practice, the Court is an important mechanism to redress human rights violations by holding individuals accountable for their acts and omissions. NHRIs can contribute to the International Criminal Court regime by: • Encouraging ratification of the Rome Statute • Providing advice on incorporating the Rome Statue into national law • Developing strategies and providing advice on improving national compliance • Conducting credible investigations and gathering documentation relating to crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including crimes against women. 66 Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. 25 on the gender-related dimensions of racial discrimination, 2000, paras. 1-2. 67 See www.haguejusticeportal.net/index.php?id=12400. Chapter 3: The institutional framework for women’s and girls’ human rights | 29