Measures

Women human rights defenders have long been at the forefront of efforts to combat violence against women and girls globally, often at great personal risk. Spotlight programmes have worked to support their effort including in Latin America (through the Initiative’s Latin America Regional Programme).

Latin America remains one of the most dangerous regions in the world for human rights defenders, with women disproportionately targeted for threats, harassment, and violence. Despite these risks, women human rights defenders continue to advocate for justice, accountability, and systemic change. Prior to 2021, however, there were no concrete international guidelines for investigating threats against women human rights defenders–leaving them without adequate legal protection and allowing impunity to persist. 

To address this gap, Spotlight Initiative’s Latin America Regional Programme supported the finalization of the Esperance Protocol (Protocolo La Esperanza), which is the first-ever international framework for the rigorous criminal investigation of violence against women human rights defenders. Developed through broad-based consultations with over 100 defenders and in collaboration with more than 20 civil society organizations, the Protocol offers public policy guidelines to ensure systematic and gender-sensitive investigations. It also emphasizes the critical role of women human rights defenders in strengthening democracy and advancing human rights. 

The adoption of the Esperanza Protocol has marked a turning point. For the first time, states have a dedicated tool to guide investigations and strengthen institutional responses to violence against women human rights defenders. The Protocol has also amplified the voices of feminist movements and civil society organizations, offering them a mechanism to hold governments accountable for addressing threats and ensuring justice. Full implementation will however be critical, requiring sustained commitment from states to combat impunity and build institutional trust. 

Spotlight Initiative has played a critical role in addressing femicide, with a strong emphasis on Latin America, where the issue is both highly prevalent and deeply institutionalized. The region has some of the highest femicide rates in the world, making it a thematic focus of the Latin America Regional Programme and national programmes in Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras, and El Salvador. Latin America has also been at the forefront of policy advancements and public discourse on femicide, making it a key area for targeted interventions aimed at structural and cultural change. 

The Initiative takes a holistic approach to eliminating femicide, implementing mutually reinforcing interventions across all key areas. Spotlight Initiative worked simultaneously to reform laws, strengthen institutions, shift harmful gender norms, improve services for survivors, generate data, and support women’s rights movements. By working across multiple levels—national, regional, and grassroots—the Initiative ensured that reforms were both sustainable and impactful. 

Ecuador provides a clear example of this comprehensive model in action. The country saw the implementation of the Femicide Reparation Policy, which set new legal standards for addressing femicide cases, ensuring justice for victims and reparation for families. In parallel, prevention campaigns such as the Flores en el Aire initiative helped raise awareness by digitally mapping femicide cases and sharing testimonies from families of victims. Improved access to services, including forensic support and protection mechanisms, further strengthened the national response, while enhanced data collection allowed for better monitoring and accountability. 

In Mexico, legal reforms were central to the strategy, with 31 federal laws and 49 state laws updated to improve prevention, punishment for perpetrators, and reparation for survivors. These legal changes were accompanied by nationwide public awareness campaigns designed to challenge harmful gender norms and social attitudes that perpetuate violence against women. Institutional strengthening also played a key role, with targeted training for police officers and judicial actors to improve their ability to handle femicide cases effectively. A critical milestone in the region’s efforts to combat femicide was the development of a statistical model for measuring gender-related killings, which was officially approved by UN Statistics in 2022. This model provides a standardized framework for tracking and analyzing femicide data, ensuring that policymakers and institutions have reliable, evidence-based tools to guide prevention and response efforts. The adoption of this model has significantly enhanced national and regional capacities to monitor trends, identify risk factors, and implement targeted interventions. 

In Honduras, the Cure Violence Model was implemented to prevent femicide at the community level. This approach involved deploying violence interrupters—trusted community members trained to de-escalate potentially lethal conflicts and mediate disputes. Within its first six months, the programme intervened in 662 violent incidents, safeguarding the lives of 133 women. Over time, it has prevented 1,770 highly volatile incidents, with 65 percent directly related to preventing femicide. The initiative has also facilitated the safe relocation of at-risk women and children, reinforcing the importance of community-led violence prevention strategies. 

El Salvador has been another focal point for targeted research and policy interventions. The Initiative supported studies on femicide in vulnerable groups, providing essential data to inform national policies. At the same time, judicial training programmes ensured that legal practitioners were better equipped to investigate and prosecute femicide cases. Strengthening the institutional framework and improving judicial responses have been key to closing gaps in the legal system and providing survivors and their families with greater access to justice. 

At the regional level, the Latin America Regional Programme has advanced knowledge production by publishing eight multidimensional studies on femicide in highly vulnerable contexts—such as structural poverty, human mobility, trafficking, disappearances of women and girls, and organized crime. These studies highlight the intersectional impacts of emerging forms of violence and provide guidelines and policy recommendations to generate new actions that respond to the complexity of the phenomenon. By documenting and analyzing these dimensions, the Initiative has contributed to a deeper understanding of femicide as a structural issue, helping shape evidence-based policy responses across the region. 

These country-level and regional interventions demonstrate how the Spotlight Initiative’s holistic approach, when implemented at scale, can lead to meaningful change. By integrating legal, institutional, prevention, and service-based interventions, the Initiative has created a model that not only addresses femicide but also provides a roadmap for other regions facing similar crises. The Latin America Regional Programme played a critical role in coordinating efforts across countries, ensuring that best practices and lessons learned were shared to maximize impact. The success of these interventions underscores the need for sustained investment in comprehensive strategies to combat femicide and gender-based violence worldwide

UN Women is a leading entity in the UN Action Network. In coordination with the other 25 member entities, UN Women actively engages in high-level Steering Committee meetings and monthly technical-level discussions on situations of concern, advocacy, and knowledge building. UN Women leads the workstream on understanding the application of a survivor-centered approach, as enshrined in Security Council resolution 2467 (2019), and is engaged in workstreams on technology-facilitated conflict-related sexual violence, the MARA, the nexus of terrorism/violent extremism and CRSV, advocacy, and preventing CRSV. UN Women played a vital role in the development and implementation of the Framework for the Prevention of CRSV (2022), including its pilot roll-out in Ukraine in July 2024. Since 2022, UN Women has chaired the Resource Management Committee for a two-year term. UN Women currently benefits from the Conflict-related Sexual Violence - Multi-Partner Trust Fund as one of six implementing agencies of a joint catalytic project in Ukraine. ROAP contributed guidance on strengthening GBV response in crisis-prone and emergency settings, supporting development actors through resources like the GBV Nexus Brief, and integrating VAWG into crisis planning and resilience efforts across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, with attention to climate change.

UN Women also worked with governments, parliamentarians, civil society and other partners to ensure that normative progress at global level was translated into strengthened legal protections against all forms of VAWG, as outlined in the Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women. Laws are essential, and Countries with comprehensive domestic violence laws report 9.5% lower rates of intimate partner violence compared to those without legislation. Between 2022-2023, with UN women’s support 177 laws were adopted, revised or repealed to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment with a focus on EVAWG.  

Specific examples of UN Women’s work include:

North Macedonia: Supported amendments criminalizing femicide, stalking, and online sexual violence.

• Nigeria: Expanded the Violence Against Persons’ Prohibition (VAPP) Act, increasing its adoption from 25% in 2019 to 97% in 2023.
• Safe and Fair Programme (Asia): Strengthened laws protecting migrant women in:
  • 79 laws and policies were adopted by 2023 through support of this Spotlight Initiative.
  • The Philippines (Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, 2022).
  • Thailand (Damages for Injured Person Act amendments).
  • Vietnam (Law on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control, 2022).
• Ecuador: Assisted in implementing a National Protocol for Investigating Femicide, leading to better case tracking and prosecution.
• Femicide Legislation in Latin America: Collaborated with MESECVI to provide a model law on femicide/feminicide, addressing severe violations of women's human rights and analyzing existing legislation to provoke debate and improvement.
• UN Women supported CSOs to successfully advocate against repeal of FGM bans in The Gambia by mobilizing advocacy efforts through AC GBV and the ACT programme.
• Under the Spotlight Initiative, ROAP provided technical inputs to over 130 laws and policies, of which 79 were adopted, enhancing legal protection frameworks for women migrant workers. 

Complementing strong and comprehensive legal frameworks, UN Women supports the development and implementation of national action plans (NAPs) for EVAWG that are critical for a coordinated approach to implementing national laws. The Handbook on multisectoral national action plans68 and the Handbook on Multisectoral National Action Plans to Prevent Violence against Women and Girls69 have been guiding UN Women’s work and supporting governments on developing responsive, evidence-based and well consulted NAPs to prevent violence against women and girls. Between 2022- 2023, UN Women supported 64 multi-sectoral strategies, action plans and policies adopted to support EVAWG. 

Specific examples of UN Women’s work include:

• Trinidad and Tobago: Led the creation of the first  costed National Strategic Action Plan on GBV (2023–2027).
• Fiji: Guided the National Action Plan to Prevent VAWG (2023–2028), based on consultations with 2,000+ stakeholders.
• Samoa: Developed a National Prevention Framework, integrating EVAWG into national planning.
• Cambodia: Provided technical assistance for its National Action Plan on VAWG (2019–2023).

UN Women has taken a leadership role in tackling the gender-related killings of women and girls (also referred to as femicide or feminicide) through legal frameworks, policy development, and data collection in collaboration with UNODC and regional partners.

Specific examples of UN Women's work include:

• 18 Latin American Countries Adopt Femicide Laws: With support from UN Women and MESECVI, 18 countries in Latin America now recognize femicide/feminicide as a specific crime in their legal frameworks. This milestone was achieved through sustained technical assistance, policy recommendations, and legal advocacy​
• Latin American Model Protocol for Investigating Gender-Related Killings of Women: UN Women has provided both technical and financial support for the adoption and adaptation of this model protocol in Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, and Chile, ensuring its alignment with each country's legal and institutional structures​
• Ecuador’s National Protocol for Investigating Femicides: Established in partnership with the State Attorney General’s Office, this protocol standardized evidence collection, streamlined investigative procedures, and ensured comprehensive reparations for victims. By the end of 2022, 113 prosecutors had received training on implementing this protocol​
• Statistical Framework for Measuring Gender-Related Killings: In collaboration with UNODC, UN Women developed  the framework, which was formally adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) in March 2022. This framework enhances global data collection on femicide, moving beyond intimate-partner and family-related killings to include broader gender-related killings​. Since its endorsement, UN Women and UNODC have been piloting the framework in different countries across all world regions and will be reporting on progress to the Statistical Commission in 2026.
• Annual Global Report on Femicide Estimates: In 2022, UN Women and UNODC jointly published the first-ever global report on femicide, providing data-driven insights and policy recommendations to strengthen prevention and response measures. This has now become an annual research series published each year on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 25 November).
• Commitment to Femicide Data Collection in Asia-Pacific: At a 2023 conference on femicide data, co-hosted by UN Women’s Asia and the Pacific Regional Office, 60 international experts convened to improve femicide data-collection methodologies. This led to pilot commitments from Fiji and Mongolia, while experts from Indonesia and Pakistan pledged to integrate gender analysis into femicide case assessments​
• Regional Femicide Monitoring Mechanisms in Europe: In Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania, UN Women has led efforts to establish Femicide Watch mechanisms and improve data standardization. A key achievement was the analysis of 140 final court decisions on femicide cases, bringing to light previously unrecorded cases and systemic gaps in prosecution.
• Regional Office of Asia-Pacific helped elevate femicide as a regional concern through co-organisation of the 2023 International Conference on Ending Gender-Based Killings of Women and Girls. Following the conference, UN Women and UNODC began piloting the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls in Fiji and Mongolia to improve national data collection and coordination. Building on the findings of the global femicide report, ROAP and UNODC continue to advance regional advocacy to raise awareness and inform policy responses.

Reliable, high-quality data is essential to understanding and addressing violence against women and girls. Without robust data collection, tracking trends, and measuring the effectiveness of interventions, policymakers and practitioners lack the evidence needed to drive meaningful change. Spotlight Initiative has played a critical role in strengthening national data systems, ensuring that governments and institutions have the tools to collect, analyze, and use data effectively. By enhancing digital infrastructure, standardizing methodologies, and building capacity, the Initiative has improved the availability of disaggregated, globally comparable data on violence against women and girls to inform policies, services, and advocacy efforts.  

The Initiative has supported the development of national data systems, training thousands of government personnel to enhance their ability to produce and analyze prevalence and incidence data on violence against women and girls. Since 2019, 1,151 national statistics officers have strengthened their capacity in this area, and 55 national statistics offices have developed, adapted, and contextualized methods and standards to generate national-level data. This has led to a significant increase in the availability of publicly accessible data: 

• 94 per cent of target countries regularly report data on intimate partner violence—an increase of 32 per cent since the Initiative began. 
• 78 per cent of target countries have publicly available data on femicide. 
• 86 per cent of target countries report on female genital mutilation. 

Strengthening digital infrastructure has been a key component of these efforts. In Mozambique, for example, the InfoViolência database, which tracks gender-based violence cases, expanded significantly with Spotlight Initiative’s support. The number of registered cases tripled within a year, reaching approximately 6,000 cases in 2022. Investments in training police officers, government officials, and other duty-bearers have ensured that data collection processes are standardized and effectively implemented across all target districts. 

Similarly, Spotlight Initiative supported the establishment and expansion of the National GBV Data Situation Room and Dashboard in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs Nigeria from the six target states in which the Initiative works to 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Additionally, the SGBV Accountability Tracker was launched in collaboration with Nigerian Governors’ Wives Forum and the Child Protection Information Management System was also established. As a result, reportage has been scaled up to ensure that GBV data is well coordinated for strengthened policy making and improved national response to violence against women and girls. 

Spotlight Initiative and the government of Jamaica helped establish a new GBV victim data dashboard geographic information system, strengthening efforts to prevent and, over time, reduce the prevalence of violence against women and girls.  This Early Warning Awareness and Response System provides the security, health, and justice sectors with critical, up-to-date information on violence against women and girls, enabling stakeholders, including law enforcement, to map hotspots, conduct risk assessments, and (through heat mapping) develop predictive analysis for all parishes in the country. The data collected will inform policies, programmes, and the response strategies (of service providers), and support the development and roll-out of effective prevention programmes. 

Beyond national efforts, Spotlight Initiative has contributed to groundbreaking research and knowledge-sharing initiatives to deepen understanding of gender-based violence. By producing high-quality data and making it widely accessible, the Initiative has empowered governments, civil society, and international organizations to take evidence-based action in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. 

Addressing violence against women and girls requires a whole-of-society approach, ensuring that all key actors–civil society organizations (CSOs), government institutions, law enforcement, judicial systems, and media–have the knowledge and skills to prevent and respond effectively. Capacity-building is essential to fostering sustainable, systemic change. Without proper training, institutions risk reinforcing harmful norms, mismanaging cases, or failing to allocate adequate resources to address gender-based violence.  

Spotlight Initiative made strategic investments in training and capacity development to strengthen the ability of CSOs, policymakers, and law enforcement agencies to advance gender equality and effectively address violence against women and girls. These efforts included training parliamentarians on gender-responsive budgeting, equipping police forces with survivor-centred investigative techniques, and strengthening civil society organizations to engage with government entities and drive change at the grassroots level.  

CSOs play a critical role in driving accountability, advocating for policy reforms, and providing essential services to survivors. Over the course of the Initiative, more than 5,500 women’s rights organizations, social movements, and civil society actors received support to enhance their capacity to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. This included training on advocacy strategies, financial management, programmatic implementation, and engagement with government institutions to secure policy commitments and funding.  In the Pacific Regional Programme, Spotlight Initiative partnered with 39 national, local, and grassroots women’s organizations across ten countries to establish new and unique partnerships with government entities through the Pacific People’s Advancing Change (PPAC) grant-giving programme. In Niue, the Makefu Women’s Council collaborated with public safety and health sector officials to ensure their 24-hour helpline was operational for LGBTIQ+ communities, expanding access to vital services.  

Ensuring that commitments to gender equality are backed by sustainable funding requires policymakers who understand how to integrate gender considerations into national budgets. Since 2019, Spotlight Initiative has trained 1,992 parliamentarians and 9,297 government officials in gender-responsive budgeting, enabling them to advocate for and secure increased budget allocations to address gender-based violence. In Liberia, capacity-building efforts led to the establishment of gender-responsive budgeting units within multiple ministries, increasing national budget allocations for sexual and gender-based violence from zero in 2020 to USD 500,000 in 2022. In Papua New Guinea, technical assistance and training efforts helped secure the country’s first-ever national budget line for violence against women and children, which was subsequently increased in the following year. These investments demonstrate the power of training to drive policy change and ensure sustained funding for violence prevention and response efforts.  

Law enforcement officers are often the first point of contact for survivors, making their training critical to ensuring that responses are survivor-centred, effective, and aligned with human rights principles. However, without proper training, police forces may perpetuate stigma, discourage survivors from reporting, or fail to handle cases effectively. Spotlight Initiative supported police training efforts in multiple countries to strengthen institutional responses to gender-based violence. In Trinidad and Tobago, over 400 police officers received training in gender analysis, equipping them with the skills to provide survivor-centred services and referrals. The Initiative’s “training of trainers” model ensured that knowledge was institutionalized, leading to broader cultural shifts in policing. Similarly, in El Salvador, training for judicial actors and law enforcement personnel contributed to the adoption of a national protocol for investigating and prosecuting femicide cases, strengthening accountability within the justice system.  

Training and capacity-building efforts must be sustained across all sectors to ensure a comprehensive and effective response to violence against women and girls. By strengthening the knowledge and skills of civil society organizations, parliamentarians, law enforcement, and judicial actors, Spotlight Initiative contributed to long-term institutional change. These efforts ensure that national policies were properly funded, that survivors receive justice, and that systemic approaches were embedded at all levels to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

UN Women is leading efforts to combat technology-facilitated gender-based violence by pushing for laws to protect women and girls, closing data gaps, adapting support services for survivors, and working with men and boys to challenge gender stereotypes and discrimination.   

Shaping laws and policies: UN Women works closely with governments and international bodies through platforms like the Commission on the Status of Women and the UN General Assembly to establish stronger laws that combat technology-facilitated gender-based violence. Key contributions include supporting and informing frameworks such as the Global Digital Compact, the UNODC Cyber Crime Convention, EU Directive on combating violence against women, and CSW67 Agreed Conclusions. UN Women launched global and regional consultations for legal guidance and in the Americas, UN Women is supporting MESECVI in the development of the Model Law on TF GBV

Supporting feminist movements: UN Women bridges the gap between gender justice and digital rights activism by amplifying the voices of women’s rights organizations and fem-tech activists, ensuring they have the tools, knowledge, and networks to challenge digital exclusion and push for better protection of women and girls. Initiatives such as the EU-funded ACT programme aims to strengthen the digital security and advocacy capacities of women’s rights movements and human rights defenders.

Working with men and boys as allies to transform harmful masculinities. This work includes on-going research with Equimundo to better understand the pathways into misogynistic networks online and entry points for shifting harmful narratives and engaging men and boys to foster positive attitudes towards women and girls. 

Raising public awareness: Through campaigns, educational resources, and bystander intervention programmes, UN Women raises public awareness of such violence and promotes prevention strategies.  Specific examples include:  

• Created a bystander intervention campaign in Latin America to tackle online GBV including for ethical AI use, highlighting risks of automated decision-making reinforcing gender discrimination.

Building knowledge and gathering data: UN Women is closing knowledge gaps by defining technology-facilitated gender-based violence , developing standardized methodologies that countries can use to gather data, as required by the Statistical Commission.  Specific examples include:

• Led the Asia Pacific Learning Series, training 213 EVAWG advocates
• A 2020 regional study provided the first snapshot of women’s online abuse in Asia, followed by the 2023 study on online opposition to gender equality. These findings informed regional advocacy at CSW67 and shaped new  tools for youth and civil society. ROAP also conducted a big data analysis on VAW during the COVID-19 pandemic across eight countries, identifying proxy trends through social media and search behaviours. Regional engagement at SVRI 2024 co-led with WHO and UNFPA helped launch a global TFGBV research agenda. A repository of global TFGBV work ensures continued access to tools and lessons learned

Building partnerships: UN Women collaborates with global initiatives like the Generation Equality Action Coalitions and the Global Partnership for Action on Gender-Based Online Harassment and Abuse. It also supports initiatives like Women LEAD, which advances women’s leadership while addressing barriers to participation in both digital and physical spaces.

Since its inception, the Spotlight Initiative has made significant strides in addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TF GBV). A key activity includes the development of a Digital Gender Violence virtual course in Argentina, as part of a broader initiative on comprehensive sexuality education. The Central Asia and Afghanistan Regional Programme hosted the Spotlight Digital Challenge, educating youth on the dual nature of technology, both as a tool to end violence and as a medium for perpetuating online violence. The Latin America Regional Programme, in partnership with the Behavioral Insights Team, explored the rise in online violence and cyberbullying during COVID-19 and utilized behavioral science to develop innovative strategies for addressing these issues. In Vanuatu, the Initiative partnered with the Internet Governance Forum to generate data on students’ experiences with online violence, and supported the development of a National Plan for Child Online Protection. In Zimbabwe, Spotlight supported the Data Protection Act, enacted in December 2021, which provides one of the most comprehensive legal frameworks in southern Africa to address online violence, including non-consensual image-based abuse. 

The Initiative’s comprehensive approach involves collaborating across agencies and with donors to implement legal reforms, raise awareness, and build data-driven interventions. Additionally, Spotlight has hosted events such as the Unfollowing Misogyny session at the SVRI Forum and has recently been invited to contribute to the UNFPA Advisory Board on TFGBV, solidifying its role in global efforts to combat TF GBV.