 It gives us the tools to ensure that no woman or girl is left behind. Highlighting the intersectional nature of violence and its effect on women who experience multiple forms of discrimination. Taking violence against women and girls takes a lot of us working together. It clearly articulates in an authoritative and detailed way the international legal obligations of states to eliminate all forms of public and private violence against women. It gives voice to the structural causes of gender-based violence against women and girls, the ideology of man's entitlement and privilege over women, and its pervasiveness at all spaces and spheres of human interaction. And now with your new General Comment 35 you've gone a step further and shown how states not only have due diligence obligations to ensure that all sorts of private violence is prevented, punished, and people are protected from all sorts of non-state actors. But you've also gone on to show how the non-state actors themselves have obligations to refrain from sexual violence. It is so significant that General Comment 35 recognizes that violations of sexual and reproductive rights, such as the criminalization of abortion and forced sterilization, are forms of gender-based violence and can constitute cruel, inhumane, integrating treatment. And it broadens the understanding of gender-based violence to include violations of sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as harmful practices. Fighting toxic masculinities and bringing boys and men to the table should spark the end to violence against women and girls. We urge states to use this new guidance to design both gender and age-sensitive policies that tackle the root causes of violence and discrimination against girls and women. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has declared that the prohibition of gender-based violence has become international customary law. It means that gender-based violence must be forbidden in all states and women and girls must be protected from such violence everywhere in the world. There can be no justification for gender-based violence and no cause or excuse for negligent responses. General Recommendation 35 tells us how to end such violence and it's high time we take action.