It is now generally accepted that a citizen’s relationship with the State should be governed by human rights and that the State is responsible for ensuring that its agents do not violate people’s human rights in the course of their duties. But that is not all. It is clear that the State has an equal obligation to monitor and prevent violations of human rights when they are perpetrated by non-state actors as well. Legal systems in most countries recognize that it is the duty of the State to enforce criminal law. Since the State clearly has a duty to enforce this law, there should be no debate about whether violence against women is a criminal offence and therefore within the jurisdiction of the State to intervene. Violence against women is always a crime, but some legal systems either fail to recognize this or fail to adequately deal with it. Such failures are violations of women’s human rights. These failures are particularly evident in acts of violence against women that are committed not by State agents, but by non-state actors. Rights & Democracy (R&D) and Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML) decided to work together on this particular manual because we saw it as an opportunity for both human rights groups and women’s human rights organizations to better understand the scope of the issue. In it, we examine the nature of violations perpetrated by non-state actors and focus on how activists should document and campaign to address violence committed against women by non-state actors. Although women everywhere are subject to this type of human rights violation, the global scope of the issue is better understood through examples drawn from activists’ experiences within various Muslim contexts. Our immediate goal is to provide activists anywhere in the world with additional tools to struggle against impunity.