Oct 2009 - Feb 2010

In September 2009, UNAIDS helped launch and lead a new initiative to prevent sexual violence against girls, which unites the work of five UN agencies with the Clinton Global Initiative and the US Centers for Disease Control, with a particular emphasis on AIDS affected countries. Six countries have begun data collection and programmatic action to strengthen legal and judicial policies as well as health, child protection and community responses to reduce sexual violence.

WHO Regional Office for the Americas (AMRO)/ Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are working on a comparative analysis of existing population-based survey data on violence against women from 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

In December 2009, UNESCO’s Office in Beijing, along with the UN country team, launched a project on “Preventing and Responding to Domestic Violence in China through a Multi-Sectoral Approach”. The project is supported by the UN Trust Fund and coordinated a host of UN agencies and national partners. UNESCO is taking the lead role to conduct baseline surveys in identifying risks and needs in prevention and response to domestic violence; and developing a pilot program for training community leaders in prevention of violence against women.

UNHCR and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) are working on a population-based survey to understand the magnitude of sexual and gender-based violence and the barriers to protection and other services among refugee populations.

In October 2009, the “Sakhli Advice Centre for Women”, an NGO and partner of UNHCR in Georgia, published a booklet on IDPs and the Problem of Violence, which is based on surveys on sexual and gender- based violence among IDP affected communities.

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported: a gender-based violence observatory in Guanajuato, Mexico; integrated domestic violence data collection and monitoring systems in the Caribbean, with PAHO and UNFPA; and studies on domestic violence among Romany women (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), violence against women and HIV policies (Mercosur countries) and survivor services (Sierra Leone), with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs and International Rescue Committee.

UNDP supported initiatives for better data collection and national and local statistical monitoring on gender based violence in Cambodia, Mauritius, Venezuela, El Salvador, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia. UNDP continues a baseline study on domestic violence prevalence, in Albania; a report on judicial responses to domestic violence was conducted in Kosovo; a research on methods for data gathering on SGBV cases, as well as a compilation of best practices for dealing with perpetrators of domestic violence, and a mapping of existing services provided to victims of SGBV, were initiated in Serbia.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ECLAC and the General Attorney of the Public Ministry of Peru toward the transfer of statistical information on violence against women in Peru.

Within the framework of the Observatory on Gender Equality, ECLAC organized a meeting on good practices in public policies which included a panel on violence against women in Santiago, in September 2009.

In the framework of the interregional project, ECLAC collaborated with ECE in the development of a proposal for developing and testing a short module questionnaire on violence against women together with a proposal for the accompanying interviewer’s guide and training package. Testing of the module is being prepared by two or three pilot countries in each region.