E/CN.4/2002/73/Add.2 page 55 225. As has been seen, there is no single comprehensive instrument whose object relates specifically to freedom of religion and the status of women in the light of religion and traditions. Instruments do exist but they are diffused or require a re-reading in line with the subject at issue.288 The achievements of the conventions on women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child are immense and the interpretive comments of human rights bodies are very useful in this connection. However, the adoption of a substantial text dealing directly with the issue, in the form of a declaration for example, could be a direct reference source for the different parties concerned with women’s status in the light of religion and traditions and strengthen the reaffirmation of the rights of women on this key issue. Such a reference source would, as has been stated, be especially useful since freedom of religion can conflict with women’s rights and the affirmation of those rights has required arguments that were not always easy to put forward, precisely because we are in the sensitive area of religious beliefs or what are regarded as such. 226. States should be encouraged to sign, ratify and publish the international human rights instruments, in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and regional conventions having the same object.289 They should also be encouraged to incorporate the norms on women’s status as set forth in the international instruments into their domestic law. Litigants should be able to rely on the Women’s Convention before national courts once it is ratified by the State concerned. 227. In this regard, States should strengthen monitoring mechanisms, official bodies and civil society institutions which play a role in the protection and promotion of women’s rights in the light of harmful cultural practices. They should also be encouraged to avoid, to the extent possible, formulating reservations and to withdraw any reservations which may adversely affect or restrict the substance, object and purpose of instruments concerning the protection of the status of women, in particular the 1979 Convention. 228. As rightly noted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a memorandum for its field staff, while cultural or religious traditions of refugee communities must be respected, victims of female genital mutilation in particular suffer a form of torture. UNHCR encourages States to consider that persecution faced by women because of perceived transgressions of social mores should be recognized as a ground for refugee status, which some States already do.290 This applies also to women who fear for their lives in cases of honour crimes or forced marriage. Such women should be entitled to the right of asylum and to the protection of other States. 229. At the regional level, efforts aimed at the adoption of specific binding instruments should be encouraged and continued. For example, an African charter or a protocol on women’s rights that incorporates the issue of eradicating harmful traditional practices and an African charter on violence against women, which could serve as a basis for drafting national laws, would be an important step towards combating cultural traditions detrimental to women’s status, in particular those regarded as a form of violence against women.291 Such efforts could be extended to other continents and regions where practices injurious to the status of women are prevalent. (b) Strengthening of existing bodies and mechanisms 230. States should be encouraged to provide, in their reports submitted for consideration by international human rights treaty bodies (CEDAW, the Human Rights Committee and the