Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

OHCHR supported fact-finding missions and Commissions of Inquiry which, inter alia, look into violence against women including sexual violence in Mali, and Central African Republic. In October 2013, OHCHR, in collaboration with UN WOMEN, organised a meeting to review efforts to strengthen expertise of Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions in the area of sexual and gender-based violence.

Hide

In South Sudan, OHCHR provide support to the government to establish a high-level policy panel to improve women’s access to justice including the launching of mobile-courts to speed up legal proceedings, review of the criminal justice system.

Hide

OHCHR initiated research on how human rights mechanisms have addressed harmful gender stereotypes and wrongful gender stereotyping aimed at informing further work to promote greater attention to states obligations and promising practices. The organization also continued its support to female human rights defenders through awareness-raising on the UN framework on the protection of human rights defenders; a regional workshop in Lebanon on women human rights defenders from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco which brought together women human rights defenders and UN country representatives, including the SRVAW; an internship for two women human rights defenders from Papua New Guinea in Nepal in order to strengthen their monitoring and documentation capacity on sorcery-related killings of women and violations against women. Hide

OHCHR continues to be an active player in efforts to promote accountability for sexual violence through support for legislative reform, training for judges and lawyers, and activities to raise survivors’ awareness of their rights. For example, In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Joint Human rights Office of MONUSCO continued to provide support to mobile courts in addressing sexual violence cases as well as to survivors of sexual violence in the areas of Bukavu and Shabunda; through the “Joint Investigation Teams”, the UNJHRO has provided support to military prosecutors to investigate serious and credible allegations of sexual violence in remote areas. In 2013, 1625 victims of sexual violence received assistance in taking their cases to court. Of the 1625 victims, 406 received judgments on the merits. Magistrates of the Cour d'Appel, Parquet General, l'auditorat Militaire Superieur and Cour Militaire have improved their management of sexual violence cases and demonstrated an increased sensitivity to victims. Data collection of sexual violence cases has also improved through the training of clerks and secretaries of parquets. In addition, OHCHR facilitated the training of doctors in medico-legal issues relating to sexual violence. In Guinea, OHCHR assisted the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict in deploying an expert to the Ministry of Justice to assist the judges in their mandate, especially with regard to victim and witness-protection programmes. Hide

OHCHR in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA has developed a Technical Guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to implementation of policies and programmes for the reduction of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity in a variety of contexts and intends to pilot it also in partnership with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Hide

In the context of the Swiss week to combat trafficking in persons, OHCHR, in cooperation with ILO, IOM and UNHCR organized an expert panel on all forms of human exploitation, including trafficking. Hide

OHCHR, as a member of the Team of Experts on rule of law, supported the Team and contributed to strengthening the capacity of national rule of law and justice actors to address impunity for conflict-related sexual violence, including in DRC, Cote d’Ivoire and Somalia. Hide

OHCHR supports the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, whose work during 2012 included: submission of a report on gender-related killings of women to the Human Rights Council in June 2012; submission of her report to the General Assembly on violence against women with disabilities; and official country missions to Italy, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Support was also provided to the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, whose work during 2012 included: submission of a report to the UN Human Rights Council on integrating a human rights-based approach into the prosecution of cases of human trafficking; her report to the General Assembly on the issue of trafficking in supply chains; country visits to the United Arab Emirates, Gabon and the Philippines; and an address to the UN Conference of the State Parties to the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.OHCHR hosts the Working Group on Discrimination against women in law and in practice, which held four sessions and presented its first annual report at the 20th session of the Human Rights Council in June 2012. The Working Group conducted three country visits to Morocco, Moldova and Tunisia. OHCHR also submitted a study on violence against women and girls and disability to the same Human Rights Council session. Hide

OHCHR published a Guide on indicators for human rights which integrates indicators and methodological tools in relation to violence against women; and supported fact-finding missions to Mali and Commissions of Inquiry on Syria which, inter alia, look into violence against women including sexual violence. Hide

In Latin America, OHCHR and UN Women, together with the Spanish Federation of Human Rights Organizations and the Carlos IIII University of Madrid supported the formulation of a regional Protocol for the investigation of Femicide. The protocol will assist in strengthening national capacities to investigate, prosecute, punish and redress femicide. The Protocol will be promoted through, inter alia, regional and international human rights mechanisms. In Kosovo, OHCHR supported the development of a national action plan on Security Council resolution 1325. Hide