CEDAW/C/GC/33 protection of the law. 1 Article 15 of the Convention provides that women and men must have equality before the law and benefit from equal protection of the law. Article 2 stipulates that States parties must take all appropriate measures to guarantee the substantive equality of men and women in all areas of life, including through the establishment of competent national tribunals and other pu blic institutions, to ensure the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination. The content and scope of that provision are further detailed in the Committee’s general recommendation No. 28 on the core obligations of States parties under article 2 of the Convention. Article 3 mentions the need for appropriate measures to ensure that women can exercise and enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men. 7. Discrimination may be directed against women on the basis of their sex and gender. Gender refers to socially constructed identities, attributes and roles for women and men and the cultural meaning imposed by society on to biological differences, which are consistently reflected within the justice system a nd its institutions. Under article 5 (a) of the Convention, States parties have an obligation to expose and remove the underlying social and cultural barriers, including gender stereotypes, that prevent women from exercising and claiming their rights and impede their access to effective remedies. 8. Discrimination against women, based on gender stereotypes, stigma, harmful and patriarchal cultural norms and gender-based violence, which affects women in particular, has an adverse impact on the ability of women to gain access to justice on an equal basis with men. In addition, discrimination against women is compounded by intersecting factors that affect some women to degrees or in ways that differ from those affecting men or other women. Grounds for intersect ing or compounded discrimination may include ethnicity/race, indigenous or minority status, colour, socioeconomic status and/or caste, language, religion or belief, political opinion, national origin, marital and/or maternal status, age, urban/rural location, health status, disability, property ownership and identity as a lesbian, bisexual or transgender woman or intersex person. These intersecting factors make it more difficult for women from those groups to gain access to justice. 2 9. Other factors that make it more difficult for women to gain access to justice include illiteracy, trafficking, armed conflict, status as an asylum seeker, internal displacement, statelessness, migration, being a female head of household, widowhood, living with HIV, deprivation of liberty, criminalization of prostitution, geographical remoteness and stigmatization of women fighting for their rights. That human rights defenders and organizations are frequently targeted because of their work must be emphasized and their own right to access to justice protected. 10. The Committee has documented many examples of the negative impact of intersecting forms of discrimination on access to justice, including ineffective remedies, for specific groups of women. Women belonging to such grou ps often do not report violations of their rights to the authorities for fear that they will be humiliated, stigmatized, arrested, deported, tortured or have other forms of violence __________________ 1 2 4/25 See, for example, articles 7 and 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 2 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and articles 2 (2) and 3 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. At the regional level, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights), the American Convention on Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights all contain relevant provisions. See paragraph 18 of general recommendation No. 28. 15-13094