Responses and Services

In Mexico, UNODC supported a referral network to coordinate institutional actions addressing violence against women. UNODC launched the Assessment Guide to the Criminal Justice Response to the Smuggling of Migrants, focusing on the special needs and areas of particular vulnerability of women. UNODC is implementing a project on gender-based violence and empowerment of victims in South Africa. In Central Asia, UNODC produced a training film on interviewing vulnerable victims and witnesses for prosecutors and law enforcement agencies.

In April and June 2013, UNODC organized expert group meetings, held in Bangkok, to respectively develop the Handbook for Prosecutors dealing with cases of violence against women and girls and the Implementation action plan for criminal justice systems to prevent and respond to violence against women.

WHO launched a programming tool: “16 ideas for addressing violence against women in the context of the HIV epidemic” during the16 days of activism campaign against gender-based violence which provides programme managers with effective interventions to prevent and respond to violence against women.

WHO launched Clinical and policy guidelines for the health sector: Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women in June 2013. These guidelines are based on systematic reviews of all available evidence assessed by a group of experts. The guidelines have been widely disseminated through workshops, in partnership with UNFPA in Asia Pacific, as well as in 6 countries in West Africa and in China, Vietnam and with Syrian Ob/GYNs in Lebanon.

UNFPA and UN Women launched and rolled out the Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence. This Joint Programme is aimed at responding to the critical gaps and challenges that limit expanded access to quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls victims/survivors of violence. With a particular focus on developing countries, the programme aims to achieve greater access for all women and girls who have experienced violence to a set of essential quality and coordinated multi-sectoral services.

UN Women has provided an array of support to implement laws and policies and improve access to services.

In Guinea Bissau, OHCHR supported and provided technical assistance to national NGO Djinopi in the organisation of the Islamic Conference on combatting Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), where a Declaration by the Imams of Guinea Bissau on the Abandonment of FGM was adopted. Support to Djinop also resulted in the publishing of a “Golden Booklet” in English, French, Portuguese and Arabic containing short Islamic studies and statements against FGM.

In Togo and Chad, OHCHR supported activities on the implementation of UPR and CEDAW recommendations on violence against women.

The World Bank through its Health Sector Support and Multi-Sectorial Aids Project in Burkina Faso has proposed additional financing to support the training of professionals from the mass media, such as journalists from the main daily and weekly journals, national and local radios and television on HIV infection and prevention, including on issues of gender violence.

UNDP is also working to develop the capacity of service providers, including: integration of specialized and clear rules of conduct in cases of VAW into the General Protocol of Cooperation of relevant institutions, together with the Government in Serbia; technical assistance to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Cambodia to pilot the recommendations identified in the One-Stop Service Centre (OSSC) feasibility study; and technical assistance to the Papua New Guinea Family Sexual Violence Action Committee to integrate GBV into the national training curriculum for civil servants in 2012.