A/HRC/46/36 (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 23 (1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights); and few meaningful legal remedies exist (article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). Being listed has been likened to a “civil death penalty”.69 Women whose family members or spouses are listed bear the full brunt of many of the impacts, not least because, in many legal systems, or by virtue of the patriarchal construction of family finances, they may not have independent access to work, funds or bank accounts or independent sources of income. In countries where women cannot own property, they may not alienate property held by a family member or spouse who has been listed. While humanitarian exemptions for individuals exist in some contexts, 70 the Special Rapporteur finds them to be financially inadequate and difficult to access, operating to increase stigma and exclusions for family members, rather than to alleviate them. The fact that no legal aid is provided to those who seek to challenge their listing may fall particularly heavily on women and families with little material means to hire legal representation and undertake the arduous task of challenging the listing. In a report emanating from the highlevel review of United Nations sanctions, issues of gender and women’s rights were raised with a focus on the impact of armed conflict on women, without addressing the negative impacts on women with listed family members or spouses. 71 The Special Rapporteur has directly encountered such impacts in her country visits and seen the poverty, shame and vulnerability listing creates for families. She is profoundly concerned by the practices she has observed in multiple countries, whereby States have developed their own listing and sanctions procedures for persons suspected, charged or convicted under domestic law of terrorism or “extremism”. Given the highly opaque and problematic definitions adopted by many States and over-zealous implementation, women and family members are being sanctioned for the acts of associated family members, through widespread and destructive sanctions and listing processes which simply do not comply with international law. She underscores that, more often than not, listing and sanctions procedures are being domestically applied to persons who are reasonably exercising their rights to expression, assembly, religious opinion and belief and political participation. The impact on family life is intergenerational and long-term. Children suffer directly from the penalties and stigma being (often unreasonably and opaquely) applied against adults in their families; young family members, particularly boys, are the subject of harassment and surveillance by security services based on the listing of a family member; and the mandate holder is aware of credible information that pressure to become informants for the security and intelligence sector is applied on the penalty of being listed as a result of non-cooperation. 17. The Special Rapporteur calls out the violation of the most basic tenants of the rule of law in listing procedures and process, both at the United Nations and in the national practice of States. The rule of law deficits fall particularly hard on women and children, whose capacity to access justice is severely attenuated in many parts of the world.72 An additional and significant overhaul of the Security Council’s listing regime is overdue, which should at a minimum be aimed at matching the rhetoric of independence and should be accompanied by an expansion of the capacity of the Ombudsperson with precise legal guarantees to that effect. An expanded and adequately empowered Office of the Ombudsperson should apply to all listing procedures. III. Impact on families, family life and family relations of counter-terrorism regulation 18. The protection of the rights of the family73 in all of its diverse forms remains a distinct and complex agenda within the international legal framework for the protection and 69 See www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/dick-marty-bericht-zu-terrorlisten-zivile-todesstrafe-1.344886 (in German), citing Dick Marty, Rapporteur for the Council of Europe. 70 See, e.g., Security Council resolutions 1267 (1999), para. 4 (a), and 1591 (2015). 71 See www.hlr-unsanctions.org/HLR_WG3_report_final.19.1.15.pdf. 72 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 33 (2015). 73 See Human Rights Council resolution 29/22. 10