DPKO

Department of Peacekeeping Operations
Item ID
{0D77DA70-1857-40ED-A96D-9CD8EA9F6470}
UNAgency ID
{637A11D2-6B98-4AB4-A550-C93BF4AFEA22}
Background

The mission of the Department of Peace Operations (DPO) in the United Nations Secretariat is to plan, prepare, manage and direct United Nations peacekeeping operations so that they can effectively fulfil their mandates under the overall authority of the Security Council and General Assembly, and under the command vested in the Secretary-General. DPO is a member of UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict. DPO provides political and executive direction to UN peace operations around the world and maintains contact with the Security Council, troop and financial contributors, and parties to the conflict in the implementation of Security Council mandates. Within the purview of mandates of the respective missions, with due reference to relevant Security Council resolutions, DPO works to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV).

URL
https://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
Mail Address
United Nations, New York, NY 10017. USA
Areas of Work

Towards implementing its specific mandates on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), DPO works to address all forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women, including sexual exploitation and abuse by civilian and uniformed peacekeeping personnel.

As each functional unit of peacekeeping has direct responsibility for supporting prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence, activities are mission and mandate specific. The women, peace and security architecture in the Missions represented through the presence of  gender units, senior gender advisors, senior women protection advisors, gender advisors in uniform and the gender focal persons across the various functions and components of the peacekeeping missions facilitate the implementation of WPS mandate and address sexual and gender-based violence  through partnerships with a variety of actors, including women’s  civil society organizations and networks, host governments, regional bodies and other United Nations entities . Specific focus areas for addressing SGBV include investing in gendered conflict analysis to identify risks, vulnerabilities and drivers of SGBV, identifying and implementing targeted actions in planning and implementing of protection of civilian strategies and community violence reduction programmes that identify particular risks and threats faced by women, contributing to strengthening institutional response mechanisms/referral pathways for SGBV survivors,  providing targeted awareness raising, trainings and context specific guidance to address SGBV risks faced by women and girls and contribute to establishing gender responsive national security and justice mechanisms, including legal frameworks to address SGBV.

In missions with a CRSV mandate, Women’s Protection Advisers , engage in a dialogue with parties to the conflict to elicit formal commitments from their leaders on preventing and addressing CRSV in accordance with their international obligations.  

 
Agency Type
SECRETARIAT
Title
Department of Peacekeeping Operations

Feb 2017 - Apr 2018 | DPKO

UNMAS: Victim assistance for survivors of mines/ ERW is one of the key pillars of mine action,  

JCS: In Liberia, Global Focal Point partners have worked to ensure that justice and security services for women and girls, including for Sexual
and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) survivors are more accessible
and appropriate, for instance through specialized SGBV Units in
the Ministry of Justice, leading to increased convictions and new
indictments.

Feb 2017 - Apr 2018 | DPKO

Gender units invest in targeted SGBV prevention activities that include  prevention against VAW across the Missions through targeted capacity strengthening training, implementing gender analysis to identify enablers of SGBV; invest in community based early warning mechanisms and inclusion of  specific SGBV indicators and reporting benchmarks across all functions to identify timely identification of SGBV risks; and establish partnerships with women civil society organisations to collectively develop strategies for an enabling environment that prevents and mitigates SGBV

Feb 2017 - Apr 2018 | DPKO

Gender Unit: A new DPKO and DFS gender policy- Gender Responsive United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (2018.01) - developed and endorsed in February 2018. The new policy incorporates a targeted focus on ensuring accountability to SGBV prevention and response across the UN Peacekeeping functions

Feb 2017 - Apr 2018 | DPKO

Peace Operations regularly support national legal, judicial and correctional institutions in gender-sensitive reform processes, including legal and policy reform. Peacekeeping missions, in partnership with the UNCT and the women civil society actors have been supporting gender responsive legislative development, including addressing SGBV and VAW. Particular missions to mention – Haiti (MINUJUSTH), CAR (MINUSCA), DRC(MONUSCO), Mali(MINUSMA) and Sudan (with  UNAMID) 

Feb 2017 - Apr 2018 | DPKO

DPKO is  one of the members in the UN ACTION and contributed to supporting the ongoing initiative to implement a  Scoping Study on the Causes and Consequences of sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) from a Gender Perspective

Available resources on SEA :

http://www.pseataskforce.org/
https://iseek-newyork.un.org/department/office-special-coordinator-improving-un-response-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse

Mar 2014 - Mar 2016 | UNODC;
DPKO;
UNDP;
OHCHR;
UN Women

UNODC was involved in the work of the global focal point for police, justice and corrections in post-conflict and other crisis situations, in relation to joint field missions, planning and programming, and in strategic and operational discussions at headquarters. Led by UNDP and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, in partnership with Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN-Women and UNODC, the global focal point supports UN country presences in mission and non-mission settings.

Oct 2010 - Feb 2011 | DPKO

The Human Rights Section of MINUSTAH in Haiti participated in a workshop organized by the Direction départementale du Ministère à la condition feminine et aux droits de la femme, aimed at sensitizing the local population on sexual gender- based violence. The Human Rights Section together with the UNIFEM and IOM organized training for 20 UNPOL team leaders concerning the protection and response to the widespread occurrence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) within IDP camps.

Mar 2012 - Feb 2013 | UNAIDS;
DPKO

UNAIDS and DPKO collaborate in implementing the SRC 1983, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo. AIDS programmes are helping address sexual and gender-based violence, sensitise perpetrators, and promote integration of human rights standards in national legal and policy frameworks. http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2012/september/20120926hivandsecurity/
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