U.N. Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice

> In 1997, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Model Strategies and Practical Measures on the Elimination of Violence Against Women in the Field of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice. The Model Strategies set out guidelines concerning criminal law and procedures, the police, sentencing and corrections, victim support and assistance, health and social services, training for criminal justice officials and police, research and evaluation, crime prevention, international cooperation, and follow-up activities. These guidelines are presented as criminal justice strategies for dealing with violence against women as a human rights violation.

The preamble states that the Model Strategies are "aimed at providing de jure and de facto equality between women and men [and] at ensuring that any inequalities or forms of discrimination that women face in achieving access to justice, particularly in respect of acts of violence, are redressed..." The Model Strategies:

> refer to the definition of violence against women set out in the 1993 Declaration;

> call for the strategies to be applied "in a manner consistent with relevant international instruments, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;"

> call on Member States to provide public information to women about gender roles and the human rights of women; and

> urge Member States to limit reservations to the Women's Convention and work toward universal ratification of the Convention by the year 2000.