Measures

UNHCR launched a policy on Access to Justice for Survivors of SGBV, in 2012, aimed at strengthening provision of legal services for survivors. The policy included conducting advocacy and awareness-raising with high-level and local authorities, and capacity-building activities in both formal and informal justice fora. Hide

The establishment of Special Projects is a key development in the UNHCR protection response for survivors. They support multi-sectoral projects in 15 countries and cover a wide range of activities, including strengthening psychosocial response for urban refugees in India, provision of safe houses for IDPs in Haiti, and promotion of livelihoods for refugees in Ethiopia. Other examples include one-stop services to all survivors of SGBV in Jordan, regardless of their legal status; an agreement between the government and Lawyers without Borders to assist UNHCR and partners in facilitating legal services for refugees in Burundi; mobile courts in Uganda and Colombia to ensure that persons in areas lacking judicial infrastructure can have access to justice. Hide

Demand for UN Trust Fund support remained steady in 2012. The UN Trust Fund completed its 16th grant making cycle, which involved the review of 2,210 applications by 105 reviewers at the global and field level. The participation of 18 UN agencies in the extensive review process demonstrated the Fund’s ability to bring together different agencies to address violence against women, and ‘Deliver as One’ in action. The UN Trust Fund awarded US$ 8.4 million in new grants to 12 initiatives in 19 countries. The new grants are expected to reach nearly 2 million beneficiaries by 2015. By the end of 2012, the UN Trust Fund’s active portfolio included 95 programmes, covering 85 countries and territories, for a total value of over US$ 63.5 million.The UN Trust Fund continued its support of global learning initiatives through its Special Thematic Windows. The Special Window under the 16th grant-making focused on addressing violence against women in conflict, post-conflict and transitional settings. The UN Trust Fund awarded close to US$ 3.5 million to four new programmes working on this issue, including its first ever grants to Libya. Grantees will scale-up proven approaches to service delivery for gender-based violence in humanitarian contexts, address the urgent matter of accountability for gender-based crimes in these settings and work to ensure transitional justice mechanisms are designed in ways to better address the specific needs of survivors of violence.As part of the UN Trust Fund’s US$ 9.6 million Special Thematic Window addressing the intersection of HIV/AIDS and violence against women, grantees are working to access critical services for marginalized groups such as street-involved and homeless women, sex workers and women living with HIV/AIDS. In 2012, the UN Trust Fund produced a policy paper, Effective Approaches to Addressing the Intersection of Violence against women and HIV/AIDS, based on lessons learned from its programmes addressing the twin pandemics. The paper, presented at the International AIDS Conference in Washington D.C. in July, reinforced the message that investing in long-term interventions and challenging discrimination and harmful norms against women and girls is investing in a future with zero violence and zero HIV/AIDS.Given that exposure to violence at a young age has devastating and potentially life-long physical and mental health consequences, the 17th cycle Call for Proposals, launched in Iceland on 17th November 2012, includes a special focus area on addressing violence against adolescent and young girls. The special focus capitalizes on the first ever International Day of the Girl Child celebrated on the 10th October 2012 in order to seize the momentum and reinforce the commitment to respect, protect and realize the human rights of girls.The UN Trust Fund also continued its efforts to develop the capacities of grantees to conduct effective monitoring and evaluation and enhance its overall processes for capturing and disseminating knowledge. It held a five-day capacity building workshop in Mexico City that brought together 14 organizations from across the globe to ascertain how their evidence-informed approaches can be strengthened. Close monitoring and collaboration will continue with these partners throughout programme implementation.In June 2012, the President of the 66th Session of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, hosted a cultural event in the General Assembly Hall with the aim of boosting support for the UN Trust Fund and celebrating UN Women. Through this event the General Assembly reaffirmed its commitment to the cause of ending violence against women and the mandate of the UN Trust Fund to take action on behalf of the UN system. The increasing commitment and partnership was illustrated by first time donor contributions from countries across Africa, Latin America, Asia and Arab States that followed this special event. Hide

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the ILO, in collaboration with the UNICEF, WHO, UNFPA, UN Women and the NGOs IBFAN-GIFA, launched the “Maternity Protection Resource Package. From Inspiration to Reality for All”. The package provides information, inspiration and tools to help organizations and individuals everywhere to strengthen and extend maternity protection to women in all types of economic activity. An ILO feature story on the issue of maternity-related discrimination at work was also published, available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/features/WCMS_193975/lang--en/index.htm Hide

An ILO programme, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), on Economic Empowerment and HIV Vulnerability Reduction along Transport Corridors in Southern Africa, reported that acceptance attitudes towards violence, through project interventions, such as education on gender equality, had significantly decreased. The project has a strong component on violence against women and focuses on building women’s economic resilience, business skills and related capacities. Hide

In Timor-Leste, UNDP, in collaboration with UN Women and the Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT), continued to support the Open Day Dialogue events as recommendations to the Government oand the UN system regarding women, peace and security and GBV. UNDP and UNFPA, supported the Secretary of State for Promotion of Equality to complete the National Action Plan on GBV in East-Timor. Hide

UNDP supported services provision in various countries, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo, through support to investigations and hearings of the military courts, leading to the imprisonment of the accused for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed from 7 to 16 October 2012 in Mupoke (Walungu territory) by the FARDC elements against the civilian population; in DRC it also supported the establishment of specialized police units and provided training on the judicial treatment of cases relating to sexual violence; in Afghanistan, Legal Help centres were established in order to provide support to survivors for access to justice; in Colombia, several initiatives were organized to encourage victims of sexual violence in armed conflict to seel support. Hide

UNDP is supporting the development of national plans, including: Sectorial Regional Gender Actions Plans in line with the National Gender Strategy (2012-2020) in Kyrgyzstan; a new National Action Plan on Violence against Women, accounting for the recommendations from the Feasibility Study for One Stop Service Center (OSSC) for Survivors of Violence against Women together with the GBV sub-committee of the gender technical working group in Cambodia; and a a Five Year Plan (FY 2012-2016) against Gender Based Violence in Nepal being implemented with the support of gender desks that have been established in all districts to handle the issues of gender based violence. Hide

UNDP is working to strengthen access to justice, including: in Guinea through training of magistrates and auxiliaries, CSOs and CBOs to establish credibility, professionalism, independence and efficiency of the justice system; in the Dominican Republic,through capacity development of the Justice System on monitoring and integration of citizen safety and security and through the inclusion of gender and GBV in the observatories under the auspices of the Nation’s Attorney General; in Sierra Leone through support to CSOs operating nationwide providing shelter, legal and prosecution assistance; in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 4,500 women have been reached in North and South Kivu through multipurpose community centres offering legal assistance and support for sustainable economic and social reintegration into their community; in Afghanistan providing access to legal support through the Help Centres located in each province reaching 3,000 victims of domestic violence; and in Nepal and Pakistan through legal aid clinics. Hide

UNDP is also working to develop the capacity of service providers, including: integration of specialized and clear rules of conduct in cases of VAW into the General Protocol of Cooperation of relevant institutions, together with the Government in Serbia; technical assistance to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Cambodia to pilot the recommendations identified in the One-Stop Service Centre (OSSC) feasibility study; and technical assistance to the Papua New Guinea Family Sexual Violence Action Committee to integrate GBV into the national training curriculum for civil servants in 2012. Hide