Department of Peacekeeping Operations

The United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau’s (UNOGBIS) human rights section has regular meetings with local NGOs and women’s groups, such as the informal forum with the national network fighting against gender and child violence, to discuss violence and other forms of abuse against women, UNOGBIS also participated in the first national conference on violence against women organized by this Network. The aim of the conference was to sensitize national authorities and the population on social values and violence against women, its causes and and how to eliminate it in the local communities.

DPKO Gender units/advisers implement, or support measures to raise awareness about gender-based violence, including campaigns, workshops, meetings and conferences on violence against women, both within mission personnel and the societies where the mission is stationed, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan; they are actively working in a number of missions with civilian police advisers to enhance attention by local police to gender-based violence against women; and they have put in place information sharing strategies to enhance knowledge about the status of women and better coordinate support to women, as is the case in Burundi and Cote d’Ivoire, also in collaboration with non-governmental organizations. DPKO Police advisers in missions study crime trends and assist in creating awareness of the local police and societies through seminars, workshops and targeted training.

DPKO contributes to policy development in the area of gender-based violence against women through its support to intergovernmental processes, in particular the Security Council.

Gender unit: A compendium of WPS indicators and a dashboard was developed as a platform to track progress of WPS mandates, including specific indicators on addressing SGBV prevention and protection
. A Mission wide roll out of these indicators is expected to take place through 2018


DDR: During the reporting period, DDR/CVR teams in peacekeeping operations have increased efforts towards collecting gender disaggregated data both regarding the disarmament and demobilization of female combatants, and the participation of women in community-based projects. The information has been used as a reference for the implementation of CVR projects, some of which specifically target women and address their needs (see below). Noting that CVR initiatives aim at preventing and reducing violence at the local level, it is also expected that it directly contributes to mitigating violence against women. 


UNMAS: SADD Mine/ERW victim data collection: UNMAS makes every effort to collect sex and age disaggregated data on victims of mines and explosive remnants of war, to ensure programming, such as risk education, is tailored according to the specific risk profiles. 

In Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burundi and Haiti, DPKO gender units/advisors contribute to national consultative processes on reform and adoption of legislation on violence against women generally, or on issues such as rape or domestic violence. Such units/advisers provide support to national authorities, including ministries of gender equality or justice, and law reform commissions.

DPKO Gender Advisers support the adoption and implementation of laws to address SGBV at national level.

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) 

Several DPKO missions have supported, or implemented training activities for mission personnel and other stakeholders on gender-based violence against women, as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Timor-Leste.

DPKO gender units/advisers collaborate and partner with different units within a peacekeeping mission to combat violence against women, in particular those dealing with human rights, conduct and discipline, children, or HIV/AIDS, as is the case in Burundi. DPKO gender units in peacekeeping missions increasingly participate in country-based United Nations inter-agency initiatives and mechanisms to address gender-based violence against women, for example in Haiti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sudan and Burundi.

In West Africa, DPKO Gender Advisers from missions in Cote d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Liberia (ONUCI, UNIOSIL and UNMIL) have attended a regional meeting to share best practices and lessons learnt for addressing SGBV.