A/RES/65/187 and hostage-taking still persist in many parts of the world and that aggression, foreign occupation and ethnic and other types of conflicts are an ongoing reality, affecting women and men in nearly every region, calls upon all States and the international community to place particular focus on the plight, and give priority attention and increased assistance to relieving the suffering of, women and girls living in such situations and to ensure that, where violence is committed against them, all perpetrators of such violence are duly investigated and, as appropriate, prosecuted and punished in order to end impunity, while stressing the need to respect international humanitarian law and human rights law; 11. Stresses the need for the exclusion of the killing and maiming of women and girls, as prohibited under international law, and crimes of sexual violence from amnesty provisions in the context of conflict resolution processes; 12. Also stresses that, despite important steps taken by many countries around the world, States should continue to focus on the prevention of violence against women and its causes and consequences, in order to complement more effectively the improved legal and policy frameworks, and should therefore monitor and rigorously evaluate the implementation of available programmes, policies and laws and improve, where possible, their impact and effectiveness; 13. Further stresses that States should take measures to ensure that all officials responsible for implementing policies and programmes aimed at preventing violence against women and girls, protecting and assisting the victims and investigating and punishing violence against women and girls receive proper training to sensitize them to the different and specific needs of women and girls, in particular those who have been subjected to violence, so that women and girls are not revictimized when seeking justice and redress; 14. Stresses that States should take all possible measures to empower women, inform them of their rights in seeking redress through mechanisms of justice and inform everyone of women’s rights and of the existing penalties for violating those rights; 15. Calls upon States, with the support of United Nations entities, to fully engage men and boys, as well as families and communities, as agents of change in preventing and condemning violence against women; 16. Urges States to continue to develop their national strategy, translating it into concrete programmes and actions, and a more systematic, comprehensive, multisectoral and sustained approach, aimed at eliminating all forms of violence against women, including by achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women, and by increasing the focus on prevention in laws, policies and programmes and their implementation, monitoring and evaluation, so as to ensure the optimal use of available instruments, by, for example: (a) Establishing, in partnership with all relevant stakeholders and at all relevant levels, a comprehensive integrated national plan dedicated to combating violence against women and girls in all its aspects, which includes data collection and analysis, prevention and protection measures, as well as national information campaigns, using resources to eliminate in the media gender stereotypes that lead to violence against women and girls; (b) Reviewing and, where appropriate, revising, amending or abolishing all laws, regulations, policies, practices and customs that discriminate against women or have a discriminatory impact on women, and ensuring that the provisions of multiple 5