United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

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

DAW, now part of UN Women, in cooperation with ESCWA’s Centre for Women, convened a regional capacity building workshop on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women for judges and parliamentarians from 13 countries in Western Asia, in Amman, Jordan, in October 2007. The meeting focused on follow-up to the Secretary-General’s study on violence against women and General Assembly resolution 61/143, and on family law. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, compiled information about recent activities of the entities of the United Nations system in follow-up to General Assembly resolutions 61/143 and 62/133, to complement the Inventory of United Nations system activities on violence against women, which was uploaded on the DAW website in July 2007. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, participated in a regional conference on legal reform on domestic violence in Sofia, Bulgaria, in February 2008. 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 Bolivia (Municipality of Cochabamba) and Ecuador, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported advocacy for increased allocations for services for survivors of domestic and gender-based violence, resulting in the Government of Ecuador committing $2 million for implementation of the national plan of action. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, prepared reports of the Secretary-General to the sixty-second session of the General Assembly on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women (A/62/201) and violence against women migrant workers (A/62/177); as well as reports of the Secretary-General to the fifty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women on ending female genital mutilation (E/CN.6/2008/3) and forced marriage of the girl child (E/CN.6/2008/4).In follow–up to General Assembly resolution 61/143, DAW, in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) and the United Nations Statistics Division, organized an expert group meeting on “Indicators to measure violence against women”, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2007. DAW and UNSD are supporting a joint dialogue of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Statistical Commission, on 28 February 2008, to discuss the outcomes and proposed indicators of the expert group meeting. DAW has initiated work for the development of a coordinated database on violence against women, as requested by the General Assembly (A/RES/61/143, para. 19). Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in partnership with national counterparts, ministries, civil society and UN sister agencies, provided support for the development of national strategies and plans in Albania, Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.Under the UNIFEM-supported Safe Cities Programme in the Southern Cone of Latin America, a protocol is under development to guide the Urban Municipal Guard in Rosario, Argentina, in responding to gender-based violence, which is stimulating policy reforms in Santa Clara, Chile, and lessons are being shared with local authorities in Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Hide

OSAGI, now part of UN Women, prepares regular annual reports of the Secretary-General on progress in the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), which also addresses the question of violence against women. It coordinated the preparation, and now supports the implementation of a United Nations system-wide action plan for the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000). The plan includes steps to prevent and respond to gender-based violence against women in armed conflict. Hide