Prevention, Including Awareness-Raising and Advocacy

In the area of education, UNESCO has produced peace education kits and training in non-violent conflict resolution, which also aim to reduce violence against women (e.g: Education for a Culture of Peace in a Gender Perspective (training manual) in English (2001) and French (2003). UNESCO seeks to promote gender equality in primary and secondary education through curriculum reform. On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UNESCO organized an International Round Table “School related gender-based violence (SRGBV): role and responsibility of stakeholders” (Nov 2006). As a follow up to the conference, SRGBV is being integrated in the work undertaken in Western and Central Africa in the context of UN Girls’ Education Initiative. A module on SRGBV was added to the training of trainers guide developed by UNESCO on the mainstreaming of gender in education systems for the 6 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO). In the area of communication and information, UNESCO created a digital library, in Kazakh and Russian, in Kazakhstan. The library gives women free access to databases which contain more than 1000 legal documents related to human rights issues. In the area of culture, and within the context of its project “Culturally appropriate approaches to HIV/AIDS”, UNESCO is undertaking activities to raise public awareness on traditional attitudes and practices that are harmful to women’s health or put them at risk of infection, such as domestic violence (notably in Central Asia and the Caucasus). UNESCO works in rural areas in Kyrgyzstan to raise awareness about bride abduction among rural communities as a violation of women’s rights. UNESCO participates in international and regional conferences/campaigns, including the Celebration of International Women’s Day 2007 and 2005 at UNESCO Headquarters, which focused respectively on “Women peacemakers” (http://www.unesco.org/women/iwd2007) and “Building a More Secure Future for Women Reporters” , focusing on the role of the media in the elimination of violence against women. UNESCO also coordinates International Years and distributes Prizes and Awards that acknowledge men’s and women’s contribution to the fight against violence in all its forms, including violence against women. UNESCO develops gender-sensitive information, education and communication materials and radio programmes on violence against women, such as “STOP This Violence!” in Kenya, and minority language radio programming for trafficking prevention in Mekong region, in China).

UNESCO worked on a campaign to fight human trafficking in Africa. The seventh session of the UNESCO Forum on Gender Equality, organized in collaboration with the Permanent Delegation of the United States of America to UNESCO, was held in October 2009. The Round Table, on the theme “Beijing: 15 Years After”, explored the progress which has been made in the twelve critical areas of action of the Beijing Platform for Action.

In November 2009, UNESCO’s Office in Beijing sponsored the Institute of Anthropology in the Renmin University of China to initiate an advocacy forum and campaign to mark the “End Violence against Women Day”. The project provided a platform for experts from the government and civil society organizations to discuss domestic violence and raised awareness among university students on the issue through a variety of campaigns, such as debate and drama.

Within the framework of the commemorations of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNESCO Doha Office with the collaboration of the Qatar Foundation for Child & Woman Protection organized a workshop on “The International Conventions for the Eradication of Violence and Discrimination against Women & their Reflection on the Qatari Legislations”.

UNESCO is working on a campaign to fight human trafficking in Africa. UNESCO’s flagship initiative of community multimedia centers (CMC) provides access to information and communication resources in the areas of women’s rights and development, for poor and marginalized women. UNESCO has over 130 CMCs in more than 25 countries.

In November 2008, UNESCO Addis Ababa organized a workshop for film-makers, development workers and media professionals during the 3rd Ethiopian International Film Festival in order to identify strategies for promoting greater awareness and positive behavioural change on HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence/discrimination and climate change through the medium of popular films. Several UNESCO Offices, including those in Montevideo, Brasilia and Almaty, included violence against women as a focus in their activities.

UNESCO is organizing awareness-raising activities on the elimination of all forms of violence against women, such as international conferences on the occasion of International Women’s Day (“Gender Equality – Make it your Business” in 2008) and other conferences on relevant topics.

Within the framework of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UNESCO organized the following conferences and exhibitions: - ”Under the Wings of the Butterflies”; - "Voices on the rise: Afghan Women Making the News”, as well as the projection of the film "Girls on the air", both having a look into the lives of Afghan women; -“Water, women and sustainable development in Africa", organized in cooperation with the French association « Femmes de Demain » and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), addressing the challenges that women face and the role they play in relation to water resources management, water governance and development.

To enhance global coordination and advocacy around school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), UNESCO continues to co-chair the Global Partners Working Group on SRGBV with the UN Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI). There are now over 40 organizations represented in this group which convenes routine gatherings to exchange technical knowledge and resources and plan joint action including at global meetings, events and advocacy platforms, such as the 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence).
Knowledge and advocacy products produced include the policy paper, Let’s Decide How to Measure School Violence (2017), developed by  UNGEI, UNESCO and the Global Education Monitoring Report Team.

The UNESCO, UN Women and UNFPA Joint Programme on Empowering Adolescent Girls and Young Women through Education in Tanzania supported the Ministry of Health Community Development, Elderly, Women and Children to establish Violence against women and children (VAWC) protection committee guidelines. This will support advocacy activities on girl child protection together with the Assessment of the Legal and Regulatory Framework on Girls’ Education led by UNESCO.

In Tanzania, with support from the UNESCO Malala Fund for Girls’ Right to Education, 2,500 girls were engaged in safe spaces/youth clubs in 40 secondary schools. Safe space members are encouraged to be role models that should be emulated by other students, and to be agents of their own transformation. 120 teachers and 620 students were trained on how to manage Safe Spaces using tools developed by UNESCO (Guidelines for Creating Safe Spaces, Safe Space Guideline for facilitators and Handbook and Resource book). To ensure ownership, for subsequent trainings, teachers are trained as trainers to impart to students and other teachers knowledge and skills. 82 teachers from the 20 project schools were also trained on gender responsive pedagogy, human rights education and anti-bullying as well as sexual and reproductive health education. 200 teachers from those schools trained in those concepts by their fellow teachers and 1,050 students were reached. This activity has resulted in the districts and teachers’ adoption of systems to create a bullying and discrimination free environment in their schools and improving teaching by taking into consideration the gender dimension.

School-related gender based violence in Samoa : In creating opportunities for youth for civic engagement, UNESCO supported youth-led actions by young students of the School of Media and Journalism, National University of Samoa to raise awareness of the public about school-related gender based violence (SRGBV) in 2017. The intervention included capacity building workshops for media students to understand the nature, causes and impacts of SRGBV and ethical reporting, who later led the production of a media series to address the issue of SRGBV.  The activity allowed students to firstly understand the issue of violence in school and discuss the issue from their perspective and how it manifests in their learning context. Students later developed their own course of actions. Communication materials including posters, documentaries, radio broadcast and journal articles were produced by the team of students with technical assistance of UNESCO and their lecturers.  In the Arab region, Beirut office organized a three days training workshop targeting young people to promote gender equality. The workshop shared good practices and lessons learnt from advocacy campaigns in preventing Gender Based Violence (GBV) and sought a way to build capacity of youth advocates/ campaigners in this area.

Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM): UNESCO continues to encourage media organisations to adopt self-regulatory measures and internal mechanism, and develop standards in media coverage on the basis of such resources. The Organisation will accompany and build their capacity to portray non-stereotyped images of both women and men, avoid sexist language, content and advertising, as well as overall content that may lead to hatred and gender-based violence. UNESCO will also encourage the media to provide information on complaints procedures concerning media content which the public may consider offensive or contrary to gender equality. 
For example, a database online has been developed to ensure a wider representation of female experts in Arabic &French and one in South East Asia. The GSIMs once implemented into media organizations strengthen gender equality both in workplace operations and in content.

UNESCO organized a regional workshop on Women's Empowerment for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence in the Pacific in Nadi, Fiji.