Department of Peacekeeping Operations

In Haiti, the eight regional offices of the Human Rights Section of MINUSTAH conducted several sensitizations activities on international human rights instruments for the protection and promotion of the rights of women, the Haitian legal procedures for the prosecution of sexual crimes and the protection of women’s rights in the event of natural disasters.

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
  In March 2017 DPKO produces a range of communication materials in line with the new gender policy have been developed to provide coherence and consistent advocacy on SGBV prevention. 


DDR/CVR teams across 5 peacekeeping missions (MONUSCO, MINUSCA, MINUSMA, UNAMID and MINUJUSTH ) missions have designed and implemented a series of Community Violence Reduction (CVR) projects, aimed at preventing and reducing violence at the community level in both ongoing and post-conflict scenarios. While interventions target a wide set of actors (e.g. members of armed groups, youth at-risk and community members), these initiates particularly improve security conditions for vulnerable groups, including women and children. Moreover, by ensuring their participation, CVR projects serve to mobilize and empower women within their communities and, as a result, contribute to the constitution of a protective environment. 


Gender-specific mine action programming: UNMAS makes every effort to ensure that its mine action programming is tailored according to specific cultures and gender of the beneficiaries. In some settings, this means women conducting single-gender risk education sessions (e.g. in Iraq in 2017). 
Recruitment of women in mine action programming: Research in Colombia and Lebanon indicates that women employed in mine action (which is traditionally male -dominated) increase their voice and influence in their communities:  http://www.gmap.ch/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/final-report-ARS-2016.pdf

The United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) liaised with other United Nations entities (OHCHR, UNFPA and UNIFEM) on issues relating to women’s rights, including violence against women. The Mission also participated in various forums such as the sexual and gender-based violence-Network, chaired by OHCHR, Security Council Resolution 1325 Peace Support Working Group, chaired by UNFPA and the Embassy of Norway, as well as in information sharing and strategy discussions on ways to support national mechanisms to address violence against women and girls.

BONUCA, in cooperation with UNIFEM, carried out sensitization efforts as part of the campaign “16 days of activism against gender violence”, in November/December 2007, including a radio interview with BONUCA’s Gender Affairs Officer; reports and interviews with women and men participants at the sensitization meetings broadcasted on radio; sensitisation meetings to raise awareness among military personnel and civil society; a sketch and a discussion on ways to reduce and eliminate gender-based violence in the Central African Republic; and banners, posters and T-shirts with sensitization messages.

On 25 November 2007, the Gender Team of the United Nations Peace-building Office in the Central African Republic (BONUCA) gave a presentation on sexual and gender-based violence to police officers during a workshop on women’s rights organized by the Mission’s Human Rights Section, in cooperation with UNHCR and UNICEF.

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.

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 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. 

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

UNMAS: IACG-MA is currently undertaking a review and update to the United Nations Gender Guidelines for Mine Action Programmes (2010) to ensure that the different needs of girls, women, boys and men are incorporated into the full project management cycle of mine action programming.

SSR:   In Mali, MINUSMA has supported the inclusion of gender in strategies developed by the SSR National Committee, as well as the implementation of the 2015 peace agreement, which includes a 30% female quota in security institutions.  2. In Somalia, UNSOM has promoted increased recruitment of women to the security sector.  It has also provided advocacy and technical guidance for the Security Pact signed between the government and the international community in May 2017, which contains a specific milestone stating that all security sector institutions must adopt and implement a gender strategy.  

JCS: Recognising the relevance of women representation as An important  element that enables women’s access to justice and response, in coordination with OMA and PD, JCS has drafted a gender parity strategy for its uniformed corrections personnel which lays out clear measures and timelines for the achievement and sustainable maintenance of at least 30% female uniformed corrections officers deployed to UN peace operations.