In the context of the fight against religiously/culturally motivated violence against women, a distinction must be made between two categories of international instruments: on the one hand, women-specific treaties and, on the other, general non-women-specific human rights treaties. The CEDAW Convention contains no explicit provision requiring states to counteract violence against women. The core regional and international conventions such as the European, African, and Inter-American human rights conventions, the two UN Human Rights Covenants and the Convention on the Rights of the Child contain a prohibition of gender-based discrimination and enshrine the right to life and to protection against torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. The concept of due diligence denotes the minimum amount of state action that is required to implement the human rights embodied in international and regional treaties.  Keywords: CEDAW Convention, due diligence, human rights, UN Human Rights Covenants, violence against women