IMPHAL, April 20: A press release from the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN has informed that Ms. Rashida Manjoo, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences (UNSRVAW), who will be on an official mission to India from 22nd April to 1st May, 2013 has scheduled a consultation meeting with civil society organizations, women human rights defenders, victims and other advocates working on violence against women on 28th April at Imphal, Manipur. The scheduled visit follows an invitation sent on 13th March from the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights in Manipur and the UN (CSCHR) to visit Manipur and the North East region during her mission. Civil society organisations and groups including individuals, women human rights defenders and other advocates working on the issue of violence against women and girls in the North East region are preparing for a regional consultation meeting that has been scheduled for 28th April 2013 at Imphal.
Hailing the first ever formal visit of a distinguished official of the UN with a human rights mandate to Manipur as an historic occasion, the press release said that the UNSRVAW will address violence against women broadly, focusing on both its causes and consequences according to the mandate. The Special Rapporteur will study the different manifestations of violence against women in the family both domestic violence and culturally justified practices that are violent to or subordinate women, in the community including rape/sexual assault, sexual harassment, violence perpetrated or condoned by the State (institutional violence) and violence in the transnational sphere that will include violence against immigrant women, asylum seekers and refugees).