International Legal and Policy Development

In March 2018, CEDAW adopted General recommendation No. 37 (2018) on the gender-related dimensions of disaster risk reduction in the context of climate change. The General Recommendation provides guidance to States parties on the implementation of their obligations under the Convention in relation to disaster risk reduction and climate change. The General recommendation recognises that women and girls also face a heightened risk of gender-based violence during and following disasters. In the absence of social protection schemes and in situations in which there is food insecurity combined with impunity for gender-based violence, women and girls are often exposed to sexual violence and exploitation as they attempt to gain access to food and other basic needs for family members and themselves.

On 18 September 2018, CEDAW published its inquiry report into so-called “bride kidnapping” in Kyrgyzstan. CEDAW found that women and girls suffer grave and systematic violations of their human rights due to a culture of abduction, rape and forced marriage.  In 2018 and 2019, OHCHR supported the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, especially women and children, in its engagement with CEDAW for the elaboration of a General Recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration. The Special Rapporteur intervened in the context of CEDAW informal consultations in December 2018 and produced a written submission in the context of CEDAW Half-Day of General Discussion in February 2019.

UNODC participated in a consultation meeting for a General Recommendation by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration in Geneva in December 2018. UNODC will be closely involved in the development of the General Recommendation, including a keynote statement during CEDAW’s 72nd session in Geneva in February 2019.

UNODC organized a number of side events in cooperation with relevant partners, including on essential services for women and girls subject to violence and on the importance of gender equality and human rights for victims of trafficking in persons, during the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in May 2018 and the Conference to the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime in October 2018.

In October 2018, the founder of the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denis Mukwege, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace for his work with women and girls who are survivors of sexual violence. The hospital helped to pioneer the Panzi Foundation model of integrated rights-based psychosocial, legal and socioeconomic support provision in one-stop centres. The Panzi Foundation, which was awarded a grant from the UN Trust Fund to enhance its services for sexual violence survivors, worked in partnership with Physicians for Human Rights, another Trust Fund grantee, to train medical, legal and psychosocial professionals on the principles underlying its model and on the collection of forensic evidence to bring the perpetrators of sexual violence to justice and obtain justice for survivors. Beginning in 2011, the Trust Fund has invested in the Programme on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones launched by Physicians for Human Rights and is currently funding its second generation of results. Since that time, Physicians for Human Rights has trained 1,578 health-care, legal and law enforcement professionals, who have provided services to 42,162 survivors of sexual violence throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Kenya.

Jordan CO

On 16 February 2017, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considered the sixth periodic report of Jordan on its implementation of the CEDAW provisions. Ahead of the CEDAW Committee session, UN Women presented the UNCT CEDAW shadow report to the Committee developed in 2016. The development of Jordan’s 6th Periodic Report is also the result of the technical support provided by UN Women, in partnership with UNICEF and UNFPA, to JNCW through a dedicated joint programme which allowed extensive national consultations. Following the issuing of the Committee’s concluding observations, the CO continues to engage UN partners, donor and the civil society in the discussion over Jordan’s international commitments, with a particular focus on issues related to patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes. A new pilot programme has been launched in November 2017 funded by the Government of the Netherlands.

2017 was a UPR reporting year for Morocco, UN Women’s support to the coalition focused this year to the civil society advocacy on Member States recommendations and the National Report. In this respect, UN Women supported the Moroccan civil society coalition for the defense of women’s human rights in intergovernmental human rights processes and bodies. The coalition is composed of 32 civil society organizations based throughout the whole national territory and works following a participatory approach and inclusive processes. UN Women has supported three consultations related to the UPR process were convened with the civil society: (i) the first one between four representatives of the coalition and four UN Women staff on the coalition advocacy strategy, (ii) the second one with the UN system through the Gender thematic group to which 13 UN staff and 6 members of the coalition participated, (iii) the third one with bilateral and multilateral cooperation agencies with the European Union Delegation, with about 30 representatives of cooperation agencies.

UN Women internal policies:

UN Women has policies which are available to its personnel. They receive these through their welcome letter the moment they join the organization, available links on our intranet pages, and in house non/mandatory courses and information sessions.

Here are the policies:

• The UN-Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct defines misconduct and the mechanisms within UN-Women for reporting and investigating it. The investigations function for UN-Women is assumed by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which has the mandate to investigate all reports of alleged misconduct involving staff members and allegations of fraud and corruption, whether committed by staff members or outside parties.
• TheUN-Women Policy on Protection Against Retaliationestablishes "whistleblower protection."
• The UN Women Policy on Workplace Harassment and Abuse of Authority is a helpful document in providing definitions, measures of prevention, and steps to resolving improper conduct.

DRC: The DRC is a signatory to several international agreements and texts without restriction. The internal legal framework is improving with the promulgation in July 2016 of the revised Family Code. The challenge remains strict law enforcement. The country is also a signatory to international agreements for peace, notably the Addis Ababa Agreement, the Kampala Agreement, etc.

SENEGAL: Senegal has endorsed the international conventions for the elimination of violence against women, which consider such violence as a violation of human rights.

CABO VERDE: IX CEDAW report elaborated with UNW support

CAMEROON: UNW Cameroon worked to reduce violence against women through creating a legislative and policy environment in line with international standards on EVAW and other forms of discrimination and promoting social norms, attitudes and behaviors at community and individual levels to prevent VAW. A national strategy on Gender Based Violence has been adopted in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender. Moreover, women and girls among refugees, IDPs, and host communities, including Boko Haram survivors know and use the protection mechanisms available to them through Un Women intervention in collaboration of others humanitarian actors
LIBERIA: Except for the 2014 Amendment of the Elections Law of Liberia which calls for the list of candidates from political party or coalition to have no less than 30% of its members/candidates from each gender, there are 3 key laws still before the National Legislature for passage; Domestic Violence Law, Land Rights Law and the CRC. 

Some members of parliament have introduced a bill to amend the 2006 Rape Law to allow bail for perpetrators accused of sexual violence. 

UN Women Liberia supported the National Council of Chiefs and Elders and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to host a 3 days consultative session with over 150 traditional leaders and paramount chief to discuss positive aspect of traditional practices in Liberia. The Forum agreed to conduct an inventory of all grooves or “Traditional bush schools” as well as a list of practitioners in the 10 counties that practice Female Genital Mutilation.

NIGER
Like all other African countries, Niger has ratified international conventions and agreements for the elimination of forms of violence against women. But texts like CEDAW have been ratified with reservations. the taking of appropriate measures to eliminate all customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women, especially in matters of inheritance; the modification of the socio-cultural patterns and patterns of men and women; the right of married women to choose their domicile or residence; the equality of spouses in the choice of surname ;the attribution of the same rights to women as men have in deciding the number and space of births and ultimately the attribution of the same rights and responsibilities to women as men have during marriage and at its dissolution. This is merely a misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the terms of the text.  To this misinterpretation is added the lack of knowledge of these texts by the actors of justice and the litigants themselves; the amalgam between positive law and Muslim law, custom, .... the UN Women Niger office works for a better consideration of women's rights and the fight against GBV.

NIGERIA
Within the period there was no passage of any international bill into law in Nigeria, however, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition)(VAPP) Bill and this was signed into law by the former president on the 25th of May 2015 is being utilized by lawyers and advocates to facilitate access to justice for women and girls. UN Women engagement with national coalition of stakeholders - Legislative Advocacy Coalition on VAW (LACVAW) has continued to ensure that the advocacy for implementation is amplified. UN Women also continue to partner with the Gender Technical Unit (GTU) to ensure that legislators are effectively lobbied for issues that affect women

OHCHR  is currently engaged in the development of the UN policy on conflict-related sexual violence for peace operations. 
 In Ukraine, OHCHR jointly with UN Women led the drafting and finalisation of the UN Country Team Submission to the CEDAW Committee. It also participated in the consultations organised CSOs shadow reports to the CEDAW Committee. The Office thereby participated in the confidential briefing of the CEDAW committee, which led to the insertion of some of their recommendations in the Committee concluding observations – followed by the dissemination of the recommendations.

In 2017, OHCHR supported the elaboration by the CEDAW of General recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, updating general recommendation No. 19, including through the active participation of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women. Support was also provided for the development of global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration envisaged in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (A/71/1) of the General Assembly. Including during the Fifth Informal Thematic Session on “Smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons and contemporary forms of slavery, held on 5 September 2017 in Vienna. Besides this, the SRVAW campaigned for the inclusion of the human rights aspects of possible victims of trafficking, especially women and children from among migrants and refugees, via high-level bilateral discussions.

UNODC contributed to ICAT Issue Brief # 4: “The gender dimensions of human trafficking a gender issue brief providing recommendations on a gendered approach to prevention and response to trafficking that affects women and girls. 

In line with commitments made to the global Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies (Call to Action), IOM has started the development of its first institutional framework in GBV in Crises (GBViC). The framework will articulate IOM’s approach to GBV in crises, define the scope IOM’s GBV response, and help IOM missions to operationalize commitments to protect populations crisis-affected populations from GBV. The development of the framework represents a major step to institutionalize GBV prevention, mitigation and response as standard component of IOM’s humanitarian programming, resonating also on other IOM institutional frameworks – including the Migration Crisis Operational Framework (MCOF), and key institutional policies on PSEA and Protection Mainstreaming.