Data Collection, Analysis and Research

In September 2007, OHCHR organized a seminar on women and torture, for United Nations and civil society representatives, with the aim of providing input for the thematic report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, on strengthening the protection of women from torture (A/HRC/7/3), to be presented to Human Rights Council at its seventh session. The report is aimed at ensuring that the torture protection framework is applied in a gender-inclusive manner. Hide

Recent publications of UNODC included: child-friendly version of the Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime (published in February 2008); Handbook for Female Prison Staff on Responding to the Specific Needs of Women Prisoners in Afghanistan (published in December 2007 in Dari). Hide

WHO is continuing the analysis from the database of the WHO Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against Women. Results of research on the obstetric complications of female genital mutilation from 6 African countries were published.. WHO has continued to provide technical support to Member States on request, including on data collection and violence against women surveys, health sector response, and primary prevention. Hide

Policy influence has been a major component of UNDP’s assistance in supporting governments to address gender-based violence in Mozambique, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Mexico, Zimbabwe, and Maldives. In Cambodia, for example UNDP’s policy advocacy and support for the development of monitoring indicators on gender equality has resulted in the adoption by the Cambodian government of four Monitoring Indicators on gender equality, one of which relates to domestic violence. Hide

ECE’s work is undertaken by a Task Force that operates under the framework of the Conference of European Statisticians. The Task Force prepared an assessment of existing surveys and methodology on measuring violence. During 2006-2007, ECE completed the following: a comparative analysis of 25 National Surveys carried out by 17 Member countries10, which highlighted the differences and commonalities of the methodology used to measure violence against women and a common basis from where it would be possible to develop standard methodology was also identified; eight indicators were identified for sexual, physical and intimate partner violence, and harmful practices while other areas were identified for the development of new indicators, such as sexual harassment, killing of women by intimate partners, psychological and economic intimate partner violence. Hide

In November 2007, ECLAC published the regional report on violence against women. The Spanish version was launched in November 2007, under the title “!Ni una más! El derecho a vivir una vida libre de violencia en América Latina y el Caribe”. In December 2007, ECLAC published a report on the follow-up to Goal 3 of the Millennium Development Goals, including a chapter on violence against women. Hide

The World Bank “The Measuring Empowerment in Four Countries” programme is piloting a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) approach to measuring empowerment in different contexts. The study is being implemented in Ghana, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Bangladesh. The study focuses on the empowerment of women, and the questionnaire that is administered to women only includes questions on domestic violence and violence against women outside of the home. In Bangladesh, the partner for the implementation of the programme was the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, facilitates the strengthening of knowledge bases by supporting efforts to improve the generation and use of data, including through supporting research studies and the creation of databases on violence against women, to build more effective institutions and improve the access of women survivors to services. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, was responsible for the preparation, and now supports the follow-up to the 2006 Secretary-General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women (A/61/122/Add. 1 and Corr.1). Hide

UNICEF’s current round of Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys provides data on child marriage, on attitudes towards domestic violence, and on FGM/C. The Secretary-General’s study on violence against children includes as one of its principal recommendations that States develop and implement systematic national data collection and research, calling for the disaggregating of data by sex and emphasising this as a factor in strengthening child protection. Hide