Oct 2010 - Feb 2011

The UNESCO Office in Beirut launched in November 2010, in Lebanon, a study on school-related gender-based violence, expected to be completed in December 2011. The study is funded by the Government of Italy, and implemented within the framework of the project “Supporting Gender Equality in Education in Lebanon”, in close collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education. UNESCO continued to conduct research on violence against women and its activities to fight human trafficking in Africa.

UNDP and UNESCO supported the Gender Studies Institute (GSI) based at the Kabul University in Afghanistan to conduct a multi-province research on the nature and forms of gender-based violence within educational institutions in Afghanistan. The research was conducted in 2009 in three Afghan Universities (Kabul, Mazar, and Herat): (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001899/189969e.pdf).The findings and recommendations of the research were presented in October 2010 during an advocacy workshop with the Gender Studies Institute, the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health.

In January 2011, UNESCO signed an agreement on the establishment of a Research and Documentation Centre on Women, Gender and Peace-building for the Great Lakes Region, located in Kinshasa (the Democratic Republic of Congo). This Centre is part of UNESCO’s programme to promote the human rights of women living in the Great Lakes Region through policy-oriented research, consultations, networking, capacity-building and the promotion of sustainable peace in this region.

A joint mission by UNDP Asia-Pacific Regional Centre/Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery made recommendations to the Justice and Human Rights project in Afghanistan to enhance the involvement of women in shuras/jirgas, to raise awareness on rights and entitlements under the law, and to continue engagement with religious leaders on issues related to women in Islam.

The UNDP project “Access to Justice” in Nepal supports training and the establishment of community-based paralegals to provide information, awareness, and support for women seeking redress in cases of gender-based violence.

In Papua New Guinea, UNDP continued to work with faith-based organizations to strengthen the protection and support services for survivors of gender-based violence. UNDP supported the National Council of Women to maintain their protection and support services for survivors at the local level.

UNDP Argentina, with UNICEF and UNIFEM, continues to support the work of a Domestic Violence Office at the National Supreme Court of Justice, which has provided assistance to 13,000 victims of domestic violence the last two years (80% women and 20% men, mainly boys). The office has collected and disseminated statistics on the issue of violence against women for the first time in the history of Argentina’s justice system. Three more similar offices opened in the provinces of Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, and Salta.

UNDP Paraguay supported the project “Attention to the victims of inter-familial and gender violence: Citizen security”, implemented by the Department of the Interior (MDI) and financed by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AECID), aimed at supporting the the capacity-building of MDI, enhancing coordination with other departments and improving police interventions with victims of domestic and gender-based violence.

In FYR Macedonia, survivors of domestic violence were supported by UNDP to start their own businesses or to be employed in the private sector through subsidized employment.

In December 2010, UNDP and UN Women organized a workshop in Kampala, attended by several experts on transitional justice issues and reparation, focusing also on gender, with the objective to initiate a more integrated UN approach to reparations.