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The Regional UN Women Campaign ‘El valiente no es violento’ was launched in Quito, Ecuador, aimed at raising awareness among especially young men on ending VAW, and has been further launched at the national level in Cuba, Argentina, Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Hide

In October 2013, UN Women launched Voices against Violence, a pioneering co-educational and non-formal education curriculum on ending violence against women and girls, designed for various age groups ranging from 5 to 25 years, in partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It provides girls, boys, young women and young men with tools and expertise to understand the root causes of violence in their communities, to educate and involve their peers and communities to prevent such violence, and to learn about where to access support if they experience violence.Increasingly, UN Women is strengthening prevention interventions that include and also go beyond awareness-raising, to engage with schools, faith-based organizations, media and communities at large. In Mozambique for example, UN Women successfully advocated for the UNCT to adopt ending violence against women as one of two signature themes for the country and in partnership UNFPA and UNICEF, national institutions and civil society organizations developed and are implementing a comprehensive approach to prevent violence against women and girls in a total of five districts in 4 provinces, reaching opinion and community leaders and enlisting youth as agents for change in seven secondary schools. In India, UN Women contributed to prevention of trafficking in women and girls through the establishment of 40 Anti-Trafficking Vigilance Committees as well as to increasing the evidence base through research on various forms of VAW and strategies to address them. In Timor-Leste, UN Women was included in the curriculum reform reference group and provided inputs on school curricula and lesson materials related to VAW prevention and promotion of gender equality for potential integration in the Basic Education Curriculum. Hide

Evidence from new studies in three countries on the impact of domestic violence in the workplace was presented by ILO during the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). More information is availbable at: http://www.ilo.org/gender/Events/WCMS_208336/lang--en/index.htm Hide

The UN Department of Public Information (DPI) supported and facilitated activities carried across the System for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25 November), as well as for the V-Day “One Billion Rising for Justice” initiative in February 2013. On the occasion of the International Day, a partnership was established with Google to include on their homepage a special “doodle” linking to DPI’s International Day website. The Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, took part in UN Women’s portraits photo gallery “I wear Orange because” on the occasion of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence.DPI’s network of 63 UNICs joined with UN Country Teams and others to organize over 100 public outreach activities throughout the world to mark the International Day, including exhibits, round-tables discussions, press conferences, and film screenings. UNICs also translated information materials on the issue into various languages including Turkish, Portuguese, Persian and Polish.DPI highlighted VAW and the “Orange Your World" campaign on its UN social media platforms – including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr and Sina Weibo, in the six official languages, plus an additional 20 languages covered by UNICs. DPI’s UN Radio produced programmes on violence against women and girls in the six UN languages plus Kiswahili and Portuguese. UN Television covered the issue in several of its features for the magazine programme 21st Century, including on human trafficking of women and girls into Europe as well as “corrective rape” in South Africa. DPI’s UNifeed disseminated 19 related news stories. DPI’s News Centre produced 28 news stories highlighting the issue, available online, through social media and by email. The Department disseminated press releases, stories on iSeek and Delegate, briefings, and visual brand materials for the "End Rape in War" campaign managed by the Office of SRSG. DPI also provided photographic and webcast as well as coverage of a wide variety of events on VAW. The UN Academic Impact organized several activities to raise awareness of the issue amongst the academic community, including with an event held in March 2013 in association with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) on Sexual Violence in Conflict. Hide

UNDP also organized numerous activities to raise awareness on the issue such as national campaigns on VAW in Albania, on trafficking in Argentina and Kosovo; the “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World” campaign in Uzbekistan, as a part of the UNCT; sensitization of population in Cambodia and Madagascar, of pupils in Sierra Leone, university students in Timor-Leste, religious leaders in Afghanistan, and journalists in Algeria; production of awareness-raising material(videos, leaflets etc) in Argentina, Europe and CIS, Uzbekistan, Peru, as well as advocacy material on CSW 57 in Ghana; information sharing about procedures and available services for survivors of VAW in India. Hide

ESCAP and UN Women organized an advocacy event on “Ending Violence against Women and Girls” at the Sixth Asian and Pacific Population Conference on 18 September 2013 which focused on coordinated and multi-sectoral actions to prevent and end violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. Hide

OHCHR initiated research on how human rights mechanisms have addressed harmful gender stereotypes and wrongful gender stereotyping aimed at informing further work to promote greater attention to states obligations and promising practices. The organization also continued its support to female human rights defenders through awareness-raising on the UN framework on the protection of human rights defenders; a regional workshop in Lebanon on women human rights defenders from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco which brought together women human rights defenders and UN country representatives, including the SRVAW; an internship for two women human rights defenders from Papua New Guinea in Nepal in order to strengthen their monitoring and documentation capacity on sorcery-related killings of women and violations against women. Hide

In the context of the Swiss week to combat trafficking in persons, OHCHR, in cooperation with ILO, IOM and UNHCR organized an expert panel on all forms of human exploitation, including trafficking. Hide

In commemoration of International Women’s Day, ESCAP and UN Women organized an event on “Ending Violence against Women - Our Shared Responsibility” during which new research findings on men’s use of violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific were presented. The ILO Director General along government, workers' and employers' representatives participated in a panel debate with the theme “STOP Violence at work” (http://www.ilo.org/gender/Events/international-women-day/lang--en/index.htm). ESCWA hosted a roundtable discussion on GBV, during which the ESCWA Regional Appeal on GBV -- signed by 58 prominent Arab figures– was launched stressing the need for the active engagement of several segments of society in ending VAW. Hide

UNRWA equally participated in the activities organized by the UN Gender Taskforce in Gaza and West Bank for the campaign “UNiTE to end violence against women”. In the West Bank, this included events at boys’ and girls’ schools, where movies on violence against women were shown and the societal role in prevention of violence discussed. In Gaza, a conference was organised under the slogan “From peace at home to peace in society: Let’s unite to end violence against women”. Hide