United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

In collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), DAW, now part of UN Women, organized an expert group meeting on good practices in legislation on violence against women at the United Nations Office at Vienna, in May 2008. The report of the expert group meeting includes a model framework for legislation on violence against women with detailed recommendations and explanatory commentaries containing examples of good practice. Hide

In June 2008, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in cooperation with UNICEF, OHCHR, UNFPA and the UN Peacekeeping Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, held a regional consultation towards the creation of the regional action plan to eradicate sexual violence and end impunity in the Great Lakes Region. Hide

In August 2007, INSTRAW, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), hosted an expert workshop on gender and security sector reform, which brought together a number of experts in different areas of the security sector (police, military, border management, private security companies, etc.) to discuss issues such as gender training, gender mainstreaming, and an appropriate response to physical and sexual violence against women. Hide

In partnership with Gender Links, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in its capacity as Chair of the Southern African Gender and Human Rights Advisory Group, promoted the development of score-cards to measure progress in ending violence against women in the context of the SADCC Gender and Development Protocol. Hide

In 2007, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, launched a six-country programme designed to build community capacity to prevent sexual and gender-based violence and to build peace in post-conflict countries in Afghanistan, Haiti, Liberia, Rwanda, Timor Leste and Uganda. In Southeast Asia and the Pacific, as elsewhere, UNIFEM, as part of joint UN efforts, supported campaign efforts on ending violence against women. Hide

In China, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, support to the Xuzhou Domestic Violence Shelter is being considered for nation-wide scale-up by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Hide

In Rwanda, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the training of over 2,000 defence force members and local leaders and support was provided to the national police in drafting training manuals for investigating sexual and gender-based violence. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported initiatives for better data collection and national statistical monitoring on gender-based violence, including in Afghanistan, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, and Venezuela. In Afghanistan, UNIFEM supported the development of a database to collect and track service-based data to monitor the ‘Strategic Framework for Eliminating Violence against Women’. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, supported the introduction and strengthening of legislation against gender-based violence, including laws against domestic and sexual violence, rape and family law provisions in, for instance, Cameroon, Colombia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Hide

An awareness-raising pamphlet for women prisoners in Afghanistan using drawings and cartoons is being published in cooperation with UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, . The pamphlet aims to inform women in prison about their rights and takes into account newly approved regulations of penitentiary law. Hide