Protection, Support and Services for Victims/Survivors

In Egypt, the provision of support to SGBV survivors among Syrian refugees includes a shelter and the use of creative approaches to psychosocial support. Female survivors have access to women’s centers where awareness raising, counselling and psychosocial support is made available. Special projects and approaches were put in place, such as the individual and group art therapy focusing on issues such as child marriage, training of trainers (ToTs) on art therapy.

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In Egypt, a project by Al Shehab Institution for Comprehensive Development worked with women and girl survivors of violence, women domestic workers, female sex workers and women living with HIV in two marginalized communities in Cairo. By the end of June 2015, a new drop-in centre had been established providing legal and psychological services. Between April and June 2015, the programme touched the lives of some 111 women and girl survivors of violence and 231 female domestic workers, sex workers and women living with HIV/AIDS in the targeted communities.

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In terms of protection, support and services, ESCWA developed in 2015 a toolkit for service and protection provision to address Gender-Based Violence in the Arab region. This toolkit, developed in partnership with CAWTAR, targeted Government representatives, religious leaders and media professionals with a view to change gender-related behaviours and perspectives in public policy and the public sphere.

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In Colombia, through support of UNDP's programme, psychosocial support was provided to 2,000 victims/survivors of sexual violence. 1,505 women were supported in registering with the Victim's Unit to receive assistance and reparations in the transitional justice process.

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In Bhutan, subsequent to the Domestic Violence Prevention Act passed by Parliament in 2013, the Domestic Violence Prevention Rules and Regulation have been put in place in 2015 with an adequate legal and policy framework to protect the victims of Sexual and Gender Based Violence. Further, to strengthen coordination of service providers, Standard Operating Procedures on Referral and Management of Cases related to children and women in difficult circumstances have been developed in 2015 with financial assistance from UNDP.

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In 38 countries, UN Women contributed to implementation of laws and policies, building capacity and improving coordination to expand access to health, justice, police and shelter services – fundamental responses to hold perpetrators accountable and provide better outcomes for survivors. For example, in the State of Palestine, UN Women contributed to 10 fully functioning Family Protection Units across the West Bank, resulting in a near four-fold increase in the number of women reporting abuse in 2013 over the previous year. In addition, UN Women supported two shelters and one multi-purpose centre for survivors. Hide

UNFPA and UN Women launched and rolled out the Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence. This Joint Programme is aimed at responding to the critical gaps and challenges that limit expanded access to quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls victims/survivors of violence. With a particular focus on developing countries, the programme aims to achieve greater access for all women and girls who have experienced violence to a set of essential quality and coordinated multi-sectoral services. Under this initiative, a global experts meeting was convened, also in collaboration with WHO, in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2013 to reach an agreement on the set of essential health services that are required to be provided to women and girls vulnerable to or that have been subjected to violence. Hide

UNFPA responded to crises under the GBV cluster coordination mechanism focusing on GBV and health needs of women and girls, including essential medical supplies for post-rape care. The countries include Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Georgia, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria and Uganda. UNFPA also took the lead in ensuring that women and girls have full access to GBV and reproductive health services in the aftermath of the Philippines typhoon and in the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan. Hide

During the reporting period, OHCHR, in cooperation with UN Women, convened three validation workshops for the finalization of the Model Protocol for the investigation of femicide in Latin America. The tool aims at strengthening capacities to take gender aspects into account in analyzing the crime scenes and in identifying necessary expert evidence. The Model of Protocol was also presented to the Conference of State Parties to Inter-American Convention on Violence against Women (Belém do Pará Convention) and to the General Assembly of the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMPO). The Human Rights Council, at its June 2013 session, adopted resolution 23/25 which recognized the Model Protocol as a good and promising practice (OP 19). 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