Eight months ago, I assumed my functions as UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women. 
This is a position that was first established in 1994 by the UN Human Rights Council (formerly the Human Rights Commission) through a resolution (1994/45), and it has been renewed since then. Since 2006, the Special Rapporteur submits annual reports to the Human Rights Council. 

For those who are not familiar with the position of Special Rapporteur, I am an independent expert, so I technically report only to the Human Rights Council, and I am in that sense not part of the traditional UN machinery, nor do I report to the UN Secretary-General or the UN secretariat. 

Through this function, I am requested to seek and receive information on violence against women and girls from Governments, treaty bodies, specialized agencies, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, including women’s organizations, and to recommend measures, ways, and means at the local, national, regional, and international levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its consequences. 

Lastly, I am also requested to liaise closely with all special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council and with the treaty bodies, taking into account the request of the Council to regularly and systematically integrate the human rights of women and a gender perspective into their work, and for me to cooperate closely with the Commission on the Status of Women in the discharge of its functions.