Measures

UNHCR supports qualitative participatory child-centred approaches to SGBV prevention and response, including workshops that allow children to share their experiences, coping strategies, and suggestions to prevent and respond to violence in their communities. Hide

In November 2007, the UN Trust Fund awarded nearly $5 million in support of effective implementation of national laws, policies and plans of action on ending violence against women, as well as to initiatives addressing the inter-linkages between violence against women and HIV/AIDS.In 2007, Member States, private-sector and other donors raised their contributions to the UN Trust Fund, resulting in more than a tenfold increase over the past four years. However, the demand for support continued to far outstrip its resource base, with more than $105 million in requests received in 2007.Donors to the UN Trust Fund in 2007 include the Governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States of America, and UNIFEM national committees in Iceland, Switzerland and the United States. In addition, the UN Trust Fund has benefited from partnerships with the private sector. With the support of Johnson & Johnson, a special window on the interlinkage between violence against women and HIV/AIDS was opened in 2005. In addition, there have been other modest contributions from private-sector partners such as TAG Heuer, Omega, Leo Burnett and non-profit organizations, such as Zonta International, the Transition Network and many individual donors. Hide

UNESCO carries out a series of studies which examine the family laws in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Hide

UNESCO is organizing awareness-raising activities on the elimination of all forms of violence against women, such as international conferences on the occasion of International Women’s Day (“Gender Equality – Make it your Business” in 2008) and other conferences on relevant topics. Hide

UNESCO is working on a campaign to fight human trafficking in Africa. UNESCO’s flagship initiative of community multimedia centers (CMC) provides access to information and communication resources in the areas of women’s rights and development, for poor and marginalized women. UNESCO has over 130 CMCs in more than 25 countries. Hide

ESCWA published in 2007 the Report on Women in the Arab region: Achievements, Obstacles and Prospects for Advancement, which reviewed the status of Arab women and their achievements in the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the Arab Plan of Action and the Beirut Declaration, a five year plan which includes women’s rights and violence against women among its five priority areas. Hide

ESCWA undertook advisory missions in 2007 to strengthen capacity for the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, including legal reform and application of existing law in line with the Convention, as a pre-requisite for eradicating violence against women in the region. 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

Through its “Addressing Gender-based Violence in Darfur” project, UNDP undertook a project on gender-based violence from 2006 to 2008. The project established a Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Working Group that served as a forum for coordination and collaboration; provided technical support to the SGBV committees in compiling a national plan on SGBV, in collaboration with other UN entities; established women’s committees/centres that were trained in dealing with SGBV; conducted SGBV and GBV awareness raising sessions and trainings for paralegals, judges, lawyers, the judiciary and local communities; established a partnership with the Chief Justice, the Chief Prosecutor, the Chief Attorney-General in El Fasher, in raising awareness on SGBV and on addressing it; referred several SGBV cases to the UNDP-supported Legal Aid Network. Hide

UNDP advocates for the elimination of violence against women and raises awareness by promoting multi-media national and local campaigns, including the “16 days of activism against gender violence” and the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Hide