79 252. Bearing in mind the definition of violence against women adopted in the Convention of Belém do Pará, the Court considers that the physician should have foreseen that the intentional alteration of I.V.’s physical capacity for biological reproduction, with total disregard for her autonomy and reproductive freedom would cause her intense emotional suffering and, despite this, he did not modify his conduct in the belief that it was he who was in the best position to take the decision that he considered most beneficial for I.V. The Court finds that an intrusion of this magnitude into the body and the personal integrity of I.V., without her consent, foreseeably caused a significant suffering for the victim, especially given that the physician assumed for himself an extremely person decision that belonged to I.V. – which was not a life or death decision. In addition, the Court has underlined that sterilization affects women disproportionately because they are women and, also, based on the perception of their primarily reproductive role and that they are not capable of taking responsible decisions on their reproductive health and family planning (supra paras. 187 and 243). 253. The right of women to live free of violence is closely related to the right to non-discrimination. The Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has indicated that “gender-based violence is a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women’s ability to enjoy rights and freedoms on a basis of equality with men.”334 This “[g]ender-based violence […] inhibits the ability to enjoy rights and freedoms, including economic, social and cultural rights, on a basis of equality.”335. 254. The Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, recognized that forced sterilization is an act of violence against women. 336 This has been reaffirmed by several of the United Nations Special Rapporteurs, the Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and the Human Rights Committee, indicating that forced, obligatory, coercive, non-consensual or involuntary female sterilization constitutes an act of violence against women.337 255. Based on the above, the Court determines that the non-consensual or involuntary sterilization that I.V. underwent in a public hospital, while under stress and without her informed consent, caused her serious physical and psychological harm and entailed the permanent loss of her reproductive capacity, thus constituting an act of violence and discrimination against her. Consequently, the Court concludes that the State failed to comply with its obligation to refrain from any action or practice involving violence against women and to ensure that the State’s authorities, officials, personnel, agents and institutions conduct themselves in conformity with this obligation, in violation of Article 7(a) of the Convention of Belém do Pará. of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 19, Violence against women, 1992, para. 6. UN, Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 19, Violence against women, 1992, para. 1. 334 UN, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 16, The equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, August 11, 2005, para. 27. 335 Cf. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women, A/CONF.177/20, 1995, para. 115. 336 Cf. UN, Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, General Recommendation No. 19, Violence against women, 1992, para. 22; the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women A/CONF.177/20, 1995, para. 115; Report of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Policies and practices that impact women’s reproductive rights and contribute to, cause or constitute violence against women, E/CN.4/1999/68/Add.4, January 21, 1999, para. 51; Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 28, The equality of rights between men and women, March 29, 2000, paras. 11 and 22, and Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, A/HRC/22/53, February 1, 2013, para. 48. 337