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UN-Women designed and facilitated a 3 half-day, scenario-based capacity building workshop specifically for its PSEA focal points from all regions. To additionally ensure alignment with the UN system wide PSEA strategy and its UNCT operationalization, UN-Women invited speakers from the Victims’ Rights Advocate, the UN Development Coordination Office, and the Office of the Special Coordinator for improving the UN response to SEA.
Scenario-based trainings for addressing SEA and SH were developed by UN Women to complement and contextualize the existing mandatory online training for both topics. The case scenarios used were specifically created for the UN-Women contexts to maximize relevance and relatability of the training. UN Women piloted the tow trainings in 4 country offices and is in the process of coordinating their rollout across the organization.
UN Women East and Southern Regional Office has organized a 4-day training for electoral management bodies, political parties, security institutions, and relevant women’s organizations who are major stakeholders in the conduct of elections, on Preventing Violence Against Women in Elections using the UN WOMEN Preventing VAWE in Elections Guide. The training aims to provide election stakeholders and relevant civil society organizations with in-depth knowledge on the nature and consequences of VAWE, and tools and good practices to prevent it and/or mitigate its consequences.
In Zimbabwe UN Women provided technical support and capacity building to key electoral stakeholders, including the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and the Zimbabwe National Police, to enhance institutional capacities to monitor VAWP. These initiatives include development of knowledge, capacity building efforts, development of partnerships with political parties and key state actors, creating avenues for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to work with institutions such as the Zimbabwe Republic Police and civil society to address the problem. UN Women trained 80 (45 women and 35 men) members of the police service and supported the development of the police strategic document for police 2021 to 2025. The initiative equipped the police with skills to monitor VAWP.
At the East & Southern African regional level, to bring the global commitments to the field and to create an enabling safe, secure and equitable environment in line with the UN Secretary-Generals guidance, a Training of Trainers program on “Gender Parity” and “Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse” was organized in partnership with UN Women HQ with participation by 42 participants from 12 countries in the region representing UN Women, UNPFA, UNHCR, IOM, ICAO and UNDSS in Mombasa, Kenya. Following the training at least 5 countries have replicated the training in their countries and also took initiatives to establish and strengthen the PSEA task forces.
In Kenya, UN Women continued to play a key role in convening and leading stakeholders to demand accountability for ending violence against women and girls, while at the same time ensuring access to quality and essential services for survivors. As one of the key highlights, UN Women together with its’ partners convened a National GBV Conference in 2019 bringing together over 450 participants from across the country with the aim to harness accountability for GBV prevention and response. As a result of the Conference a communique with 27 recommendations articulating roles for each duty bearer was finalized.
Standardization of GBV training was improved through UN Women support in the development of the Safe Spaces and Applicability Manual[1], the GBV Service Providers Data Bank tools, and the Model Gender-Based Violence Recovery Centers Guidance Note. These tools are expected to provide a harmonized training curriculum for use by duty bearers while the guidance note will provide a framework for provision of GBV services within a multi-sectoral framework. The Harmonized GBV Training Manual[2] was also finalized. Further KCO led in the development of the “Implementation Guide for the Global Women’s Safety Framework”[3]. The guide to implementation provides a “how to” and a “step by step” guidance for tea chain producers who are keen to address sexual harassment. Prevention and response to GBV by the National Police Service was strengthened through KCO’s support in the development of a National Action Plan (NAP). The NAP provides for the creation of a special gender crimes unit within the policy system and provides opportunities for all actors to strengthen their partnership with the Police, by seeking to support different aspects of the action plan.
A number of capacity building and trainings were undertaken targeting law enforcement and other officials in the ESAR countries. Most significantly, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe also benefited from the Spotlight funding and undertook a number of initiatives aimed at training and capacity building of relevant actors in addressing VAW, HP and promotion of SRHR.
Roll-out of RESPECT
Together with the Prevention Collaborative and WHO, UN Women rolled out the RESPECT framework and Implementation Package in Bangladesh, India and Nepal in early 2021. The workshop series was attended by representatives from UN entities, civil society, academic and governments and resulted in national workplace to take forward initiatives to prevent VAW.
Webinar series on the use of technology for remote service provision to support survivors of violence
Frontline service providers who have been utilizing technology to deliver services to women migrant workers shared their lessons learned and tips to use technology safely especially in the context of COVID-19. The three sessions facilitated linkages between violence against women services and technologies by adapting remote methods used in service delivery to meet the survivor-centered principles of privacy, confidentiality and security. Two technical briefs were launched during the webinar: “Safe Technology for the Provision of Services to Women Migrant Workers at Risk of or Subject to Violence” and “Remote Service Provision for Women Migrant Workers at Risk or Subject to Violence” with the Action Cards: 10 Things to Know About Violence against Women Migrant Workers.
Responsible Representation and Reporting of VAW/VAC
The new Guidelines on Responsible representation and reporting of violence against women and violence against children, developed by UN Women, UNFPA and UNICEF, provide recommendations to media professionals to ensure that media coverage does not contribute to harm. This document offers guidance on interviewing survivors of violence, applying an intersectional and survivor-centered approach to reporting, avoiding victim-blaming or stereotyping, and using gender-responsive language. This guideline emerged from conversations within the regional UNITE Working Group during COVID-19.
Webinar Series on Violence against Women and Girls Data Collection and Use
The webinar series was organized to engage VAWG professionals, national statistics offices and service providers to deepen and exchange practices regarding the collection, analysis and use of data on violence against women with a specific focus on administrative data. The webinar series explored the main types of VAWG data – prevalence, costing data – and strengthen reporting on VAWG-related indicators. The webinar was based on the ASEAN Regional Guidelines on Violence against Women and Girls Data Collection and Use.
Addressing Violence and Harassment in the World of Work: Women migrant workers in ASEAN
A training tool to complement the ILO-UN Women “Handbook: Addressing violence and harassment against women in the world of work” was developed to be used in trainings on the continuum of violence faced by women and women migrant workers. The tool specifically targets CSOs and key government stakeholders. This tool focuses on addressing violence and harassment against women in the world of work, featuring examples from ASEAN and highlighting specific risks related to women migrant workers.
With UN Women Albania Support:
- Capacities of 231 service providers increased in ensuring familiarity and use of changes to legal framework on GBV.
- Capacities of 71 service providers from 4 municipalities of the country were increased to address cases of VAWG from vulnerable communities such as Roma women, women with disabilities, women from LGBTQI+ community.
- There is better coordination among actors of the referral mechanisms which address cases of violence against women was ensured through workshops in the municipalities of Prrenjas, Peqin, Cerrik, Belsh, Gramsh and Elbasan with a total of 69 CCR members.
- Staff of 27 administrative units of Tirana increased capacities to respond to violence against women and girls through 11 capacity building sessions.
With UN Women Bosnia and Herzegovina support extensive number of trainings was conducted resulting in: more than 190 individuals have better knowledge on gender equality and GBV including sexual harassment in public space; 21 teacher and 35 high school students have capacities to conduct advanced prevention activities in high schools; and 15 religious' leaders across BiH have in depth knowledge on violence against women and how this can be prevented; and finally, more than 20 media professionals have increased knowledge on responsible reporting on GBV.
As a result of UN Women Ukraine support: 36 (12 men and 24 women) representatives of local authorities and local legal aid providers from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts increase their knowledge on applying a survivor-centred approach when developing policies and implementing services for gender-based violence victims/survivors; 37 persons (35 women and 2 men), Deputy Heads of communities and Heads of Social Protection Departments from target communities of Donetsk oblast and Luhansk oblast increased their knowledge on the international and national legal frameworks on the prevention and counteraction of domestic and gender-based violence, on effective coordination and referral aimed at ensuring quality protection and a coordinated response, through a two-day training; UN Women jointly with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Police of Ukraine developed the “Guidelines for police on prevention and response to domestic violence in Ukraine”; 60 (51 women, 9 men) of media representatives from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts increased their knowledge on gender-sensitive and human rights-based reporting.
Pursuing the goal to increase police capacity to hold domestic violence offenders accountable and better protect the safety of victims and their children, UN Women Moldova CO supported various capacity building and as a result:
- 16 police officers, including 6 women and 10 men, representing different regions from Moldova are certified trainers and have knowledge and skills to deliver EVAW trainings for law enforcement officials, as part of the team of national trainers within Center for Integrated Application of Legislation (CIPAL) (2020).
- In 2021, UN Women CO is supporting a comprehensive capacity building in partnership with the General Inspectorate of Police, the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation, and the National Inspectorate of Public Security for the up 400 police officers. As result of the first phase - 8 two-day training activities 182 police officers, 93 from criminal investigative and 89 public security division, 75 women and 107 men from 36 different regions of the country acquired relevant knowledge and skills to respond promptly and in accordance with the provision of national law to cases of domestic violence.
In addition to that, to support the establishment of a specialist service for victims of sexual violence in Cahul and Ungheni, over 41 law enforcement representatives and medical staff, psychologists, and social assistants have acquired new knowledge and skills for a better response to cases of sexual violence to trauma-oriented approach and coordination of efforts of all specialists involved in response to cases of sexual violence.
In Tajikistan – series of training for WLWH have been conducted to build their leadership skills and adopt transformational leadership approach in advocating for the life free of violence and discrimination. Service providers in SPT pilot districts have been trained in localized case-management system.
25 participants, most of whom are lawyers of human rights organizations or individual practicing lawyers with more than 10 years of experience (68% of participants), have been trained and increased their knowledge and skills on International standards and procedures for the protection of women and girls from gender-based violence and procedures for filing complaints with CEDAW and other UN convention bodies on an online training which was held for lawyers and advocates in Dushanbe and Khujand.
Over 80 of experts, general public, community and beneficiaries in Tajikistan have strengthened their knowledge and understanding on mechanisms of legal protection and assessment of physical and psychological injuries resulting from violence and mechanisms of legal protection and medical documentation from impunity.
In the frames of the 16 Days campaign, the local UN Women partner, NGO Human Right Center, received technical and logistical support from UN Women to conduct two webinars "Mechanisms of Legal Protection and Assessment of Physical and Psychological Injuries Resulting from Violence" (November 25th) and "Mechanisms of Legal Protection and Medical Documentation from Impunity" (December 1st).
According to the report, in total, 84 women, girls, lawyers, health specialists, psychologists, etc. participated in the webinars and increased their knowledge and understanding on the topics and the ways to address violence and related issues. Notably, representatives of WLWH, one of the most marginalized and discriminated group of the Tajik society, have also participated in the webinars. UN Women contributed to this by supporting local NGO Human Rights Center in preparation of those webinars by provision relevant information and data. Several local gender activists and advocates contributed to the webinars by leading thematic sessions and answering questions from participants.
After launching the COVID-19 and EVAWG outreach campaign, the Red Crescent Society in Tajikistan encountered several challenges in capacity building and training of volunteers in EVAWG realm due to social distancing modalities and health-related issues which caused constant turnover of NGO staff and volunteers. The duration of the project was only 5 months and UN Women tried to come up with innovative, promising, and effective service delivery modalities, especially in conveying outreach and VAWG essentials to the volunteers, who have been mainly trained in disaster response and emergency. As a solution to face-to-face training, UN Women developed a digital tutorial for community volunteers and NGOs on outreach essentials, communication skills with the victims of violence and further referral of these victims to the local VAWG service providers. The digital tutorial was adapted to the mobile version and disseminated among volunteers. Volunteers had hands-on guidelines on communication modalities, identification of VAWG cases and referral mechanism in their mobile phones, which they used in a daily work in remote districts. According to the Red Crescent Society and NGOs, work efficiency and coverage have increased as newcomers among volunteers used the tutorial instead of face-to-face induction training.
15 professional lawyers, members of the Tajik Bar Associations enhanced their knowledge in mainstreaming gender in justice sector, criminal, and civil cases, considering a human rights-based approach and consequences of HIV/AIDS.
UN Women Tajikistan strengthened the capacity of NGO staff and volunteers through trainings on VAWG case management and referral mechanism, supporting 12-hour operation of 12 NGO staff for remote consultations and developed information materials on VAWG support services in 6 target districts (Isfara, B. Gafurov, Vose, Rudaki, Gissar and Yavan).
UN Women ROAP is supporting several offices that are engaged in legislative review, by contracting and making available experts on VAW legislation. This expert support has provided analysis and suggestions for legislation in the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam in this time period. The legislative review process is ongoing in all three countries.
In Colombia within the framework of the electoral reform UN Women supported the National Electoral Council and the Congress to define measures to address violence against women in politics. For the first time, a definition of Violence Against Women in Politics and its manifestations was established, in line with the provisions of the CIM-MESECVI Model Law, allocating functions to the National Electoral Council to investigate and monitor cases of Violence Against Women in Politics.
UN Women’s office in Ecuador provided targeted advocacy and technical support to national partners directly contributing to the regulations on VAWP included in the reform to the electoral legal framework (Code of Democracy 2020).
In Mexico, UN Women provided technical assistance to the Federal Legislative bodies during the legal reform process of eight electoral legal frameworks to address and respond to VAWP.
UN Women ESARO in partnership with the country offices, UN partner agencies and the African Union is engaging traditional authorities across Africa by working with AU to launch Council of Traditional Leaders of Africa (COTLA), /Conseil des Autorites Traditionnelles D’Afrique (CONATA), so that it effectively drives a pan-African movement of Traditional Leaders to end child marriage, FGM/C and other harmful practices. Throughout the year the African Union engaged COTLA/CONATA as an advocacy institution following the AU statutory meeting of ministers in charge of Social Development, Labor and Employment who took a decision calling for an extension of the campaign to end child marriage for a five-year period from 2019 to 2023. In the year, COTLA/CONATA convened an annual steering committee meeting in Lusaka through the support of the Republic of the Government of Zambia, and with financial and technical support of UN WOMEN.
UN Women is also supporting the framing of bye-laws to harmonize the national laws with the customary laws in line with the international conventions. At least in 5 countries such initiatives are ongoing, these include, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Liberia.
In Burundi, The new law No. 1/11 of 20 May 2019 on electoral code reform, improves the level of positioning women on the electoral roll and offers more opportunities to women to stand as candidates in legislative elections. In addition, the code allows women to be elected in their husbands’ origin regions contrary to the provisions of the reformed law which limited the candidacies of women to their origin regions.
In Ethiopia: During the reporting period, UN Women supported the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) to undertake a gender analysis of Ethiopia’s draft electoral law. When the law was adopted not including all the proposed changes, UN Women ensured that the legislative committee that was working on directives based on the Electoral Law was provided with a technical support about gender sensitive stipulations to make the derivative legislations gender responsive. The gender analysis identified issues that need to be addressed in terms of affirmative action stipulations, media use during elections, security of voters and candidates, voters that may need assistance during registration and voting and representation of women in different election management bodies etc.
Moreover, UN Women conducted a National Comprehensive Mapping and Analysis of National Laws in Ethiopia as a step towards the elimination of discriminatory laws. The assessment is a comprehensive legislative analysis from a gender perspective to provide an in-depth understanding of the current legal framework and the existence of gaps and discriminatory provisions, with the long-term vision of advocating for law reform to enact new laws or repeal or revise discriminatory legislation. The first draft of the assessment first draft was submitted for review. The gender analysis will explore the vast spectrum of laws to assess their gender responsiveness and will highlight discriminatory provisions and gaps that would require to be repeal, amended or enactment through a law reform process.
Another initiative led by UN Women was the different advocacy sessions towards the adoption of the family law in the Somali region. To this end, an assessment on the general socioeconomic status of women and girls in Somali and Afar regions and barriers hindering the adoption of the family law was conducted. The key findings of the study revealed that in almost all measures of socio-economic indicators including access to education, health, water, electricity, and sanitation, women and girls in both regions have significant challenges compared to other regions of Ethiopia. With regards to the prevalence of VAWG in the two regions, findings of the study show a much higher percentage of sexual violence against women with 14.7 percent in Somali and 13 percent in Afar regions when compared with that of the EDHS, 1% in Somali followed by 4% in Afar.
Most importantly, the study identified the factors hindering the adoption of family laws in Afar and Somali regions to be lack of political commitment, structural and institutional factors (competing priorities and inadequate financing) and social and cultural factors which are highly influenced by religion. The controversy on marriageable age, bigamy, period of widowhood, irregular union, child adoption, and Paternity issues were also among the causes for the resistance towards adopting Family law. UN women will continue popularizing the findings and recommendations of the study and undertaking policy advocacy at different level with the aim of harmonizing the regional family laws with that is the international standards.
The legal adjustment in the main electoral law has been finalized with the legislative drafting team taking some of the recommendations provided. However, the legislative process for matters that will be guided by directives from the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, it is still an ongoing process that will also continue in 2020 which is the election year and beyond.
In regard to the preliminary work on the “Assessment of the discriminatory law” conducted for legal adjustments that will support and recommend the repeal or revision of all formal laws that directly or indirectly discriminate against women and girls, UN Women will continue supporting the Federal Attorney General and other relevant institutions on the legal adjustment based on the recommendations provided.
The draft Somali and Afar assessment on the barriers for adoption of the federal revised family law, which was conducted in 2019, identified key areas that needs better advocacy coupled with continuous dialogues to bring the expected changes. Some of these areas include; enhancing the knowledge and understanding of the grass root community on the benefit of putting in place an alternative family dispute resolution in addition to the customary and religious systems, enhancing capacity of women and men parliamentarians to advocate for the adoption of family law, and facilitate a knowledge exchange with other Muslim dominated countries who have adopted family law that is in line with international standards. Using the existing partnership with the regional government and faith actors, UN Women will work towards the repeal of the existing regional law in 2020.
In Mozambique, the government of Mozambique continued to demonstrate strong commitment on advancing GEWE including fulfilment of regional and international obligations, which are evidenced by the following achievements: approval of the “Lei contra os casamentos Prematuros[1]” (Law against early marriage) (The Law was approved by the Parliament on 18th July 2019 and with its approval early unions in Mozambique are considered a crime. The law condemns until 8 years of imprisonment to adults who consent or obliged a child to accept a union and 12years for an adult who live in a forced union with a child girl); approval of the revised “Lei fa Familia (Family Law) e “Lei das Sucessões” (Inheritance Law). Additionally, 4 other Laws were reviewed to better respond to the issues included in the approved laws, namely: “Lei da Familia”- Family Law (Lei 22. 2019); “Lei da Revisão do codigo Penal”- Law of criminal code (Lei 24 de 2019); “Lei da revisão do Código do Processo Penal”- Law of review of the Criminal process code (Lei 25 de 2019) and the “Lei da revisao do Codigo de execução das Penas” –Law of review of the criminal process code- (Lei 26 de 2019).
In Rwanda, Under the equality in law by 2030 initiative, UN Women provided technical and financial support to the Legal Aid Forum, a network of 38 national and international NGOs, universities, lawyers’ associations, faith-based organizations and trade unions to conduct an assessment aimed at determining whether there are any discriminatory provisions in Rwandan laws. The implementation of this initiative involves different actors from government and civil society organizations through a steering committee put in place for quality assurance. The Legal Aid Forum has submitted a draft report waiting for final validation by stakeholders. The report recognizes tremendous achievements for gender mainstreaming in Rwanda’s legal framework. However, there are still few provisions that need to be worked out through legislative reforms.
In South Sudan, the Reconstituted National Constitution Amendment Committee (R-NCAC) has been working on reviewing the various laws including the security sector laws. UN Women provided technical support in review of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army Act 2009, the National Security Services Act 2014, the Police Service Act 2009 and the Prisons Service Act 2011.
In Sudan, UN Women has supported the women’s movement to voice their concerns and claim the repeal and reform of laws violating women’s human rights such as the public Order Law which was then repealed in December 2019.
In Somalia, UN Women in close collaboration with UNFPA, UNDP and UNSOM is actively engaged in passage of the Sexual Offence Bill and FGM Bill. The Sexual Offence Bill has already been approved by the cabinet of ministers and awaits endorsement at the parliament. The FGM bill is in the final stages of drafting and soon will be presented to the cabinet of ministers. The Sexual Offences Bill (SOB) seeks to serve the purpose of combating sexual violence and consolidating laws of sexual offences, providing for punishment of perpetrators of sexual offenses, providing for procedural and evidential requirements during trial of sexual offenses and other related matters.
In Tanzania, UN Women provided technical and financial support to the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal affairs (MoCLA), Tanzania Women Parliamentary Group (TWPG), Women Fund Tanzania and the Women's Coalition on the Constitution Review and Leadership for advocacy to repeal the following laws that discriminate against women and girls: The Law of Marriage Act (LMA) of 1971 sanctions the marriage of girls as young as 14 years, while requiring boys to be adults. During 2019, the Tanzania Court of Appeal upheld a previous High Court judgment declaring the minimum age of marriage for girls, as set out in the Law of Marriage Act, unconstitutional. As a result, the National Assembly of the United Republic of Tanzania will need to pass legislation bringing this law in line with international standards. UN Women is currently strategizing with and supporting the Tanzania Women Parliamentary Group (TWPG) and the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal affairs (MoCLA) for advocacy to pass the required legislation.
In Uganda, UN Women provided technical support to the government in the legislative developments. Some of these include:
- The Sexual Offences Bill that seeks to consolidate all laws relating to sexual offences and provide procedural and evidential requirements during trial of sexual offences in addition to measures to check sexual harassment in public places.
- Employment Bill 2019 that seeks to amend the Employment Act 2006 to operationalize the provisions of Art.40 of the Uganda Constitution and align it to the ILO convention No.190.
- The Marriage and Divorce bill which brings together all laws governing a Marriage and its dissolution;
- The legal aid bill that seeks to ensure indignant citizens access free legal aid services; and
- The Domestic Violence Act (DVA) which provides protection of women from violence committed to them in a domestic setting
- In Zimbabwe, UN Women supported work on the Marriages Bill by conducting a gender analysis of the bill and supported development of an alternative marriages bill as a reference document to inform parliamentary debates. The Bill seeks to consolidate the laws relating to marriages in Zimbabwe into one Act of Parliament and as such repeal the Marriages Act [Chapter 5:11] and the Customary Marriages Act [Chapter 5:07]. The Bill also criminalizes child marriage and decriminalizes HIV transmission (repealing Section 79 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act), both of which were key advocacy issues for UN Women in the reporting year.
Supported the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in preparing the new National Strategy on Gender Equality 2021-2030, which was approved in June 2021.
Supported the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to revise the Council of Ministers Decision (CoMD) No. 334, 2011 on functioning of coordinated referral mechanisms against gender-based violence. The new CoMD 327/2021 was approved on 2 June 2021
Supported the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to revise the Law on Measures Against Violence in Family Relations in 2020 which brings the law closer to Istanbul Convention principles and standards.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, UN Women supported the Safe network (network of CSOs running shelters and other specialist services) to advocate for changing the Law on protection from domestic violence in one part of the country (Federation BiH) and harmonize it with the Istanbul Convention. In July 2021, the law was adopted in one house of the Parliament and placed in procedure for full adoption. The new law will render wider protection to survivors and be a step towards sustainability of specialist services.
In North Macedonia, UN Women supported the Centre for Research and Policy Making to advocate for the adoption of a new Law on Prevention and Protection from VAW and DV and the amendment of the Criminal Code in compliance with the Istanbul Convention. The EVAW Law was adopted by Parliament in January 2021, while the CC amendment was adopted by Government in July 2021 and is currently pending Parliamentary approval.
In Moldova, UN Women CO supported the development and advocacy efforts for the approval of Law no. 113, which defines for the first time violence against women, so that it covers all forms of violence, it introduces the obligation to specialists of assessing the risks of committing/repeating acts of violence, it provides state-guaranteed legal assistance from the moment the complaint is filled by the survivor, it introduces better monitoring tools of the temporary restraining orders and deliberates on the creation of specialized EVAW units at local level in line with Istanbul Convention and international standards.
In Kosovo, UN Women supported advocacy efforts of the Kosovo Women Parliamentarian Caucus initiative to amend the Constitution by aligning local legislation with international standards. As a result, on 25 September 2020, the Kosovo Assembly voted in favour of amendment of the Constitution to include the Istanbul Convention in the list of its directly applicable international documents. This, combined with the comprehensive inclusion of DV in the Criminal Code as a separate criminal offense, and a specific Law on Domestic Violence, regulating the civil aspects, makes the legal framework in Kosovo on VAW aligned with international and regional standards enshrined in CEDAW, the Istanbul Convention and the European Union (EU) "Acquis".
UN Women, Kosovo is part of the working group on drafting of the Law against Domestic Violence, which is currently in drafting process under the auspices of Kosovo Parliamentary Commission for Committee on Human Rights, Gender Equality, Victims of Sexual Violence During the Conflict, Missing Persons and Petitions.
State bodies in Kazakhstan have enhanced capacity to revise legal and policy framework to strengthen response and prevention of VAW through active participation in working and expert groups in cooperation with the Parliament of Kazakhstan. UN Women provided technical support for expert community and Civil Society organizations. In 2020 UN Women continued supporting the development and adoption of the new draft harmonized national legislation in the field of prevention and combating domestic violence through the review of international best practices and legislation in the field of prevention of domestic violence and on issues of family and gender equality. A member of UN Women Kazakhstan Civil Society Advisory Group, national experts, as well as representatives of the National Women's Machinery worked closely with the Parliamentarians and CSOs to synthesize the best practices and integrate international standards.
In Tajikistan UN Women was instrumental in developing the National Strategy of Activitization of Role of Women in the Society (March, 2021) developed; UN Women substantially contributed to the draft Anti-Discrimination Law, which is being developed.
UN-Women highlighted the importance of preventing SH during COVID-19 in multiple settings, including on health, care and domestic work as well as on public spaces and cyber harassment, through webinars with a total of 1820 participants from within and outside of the UN system.
#HeForShe at home campaign
To creatively address concerns about rising violence at home during COVID-19, and the increased burden of unpaid care work, UN Women in Asia and the Pacific joined forces with a community of influencers, activists and celebrities in Thailand to involve the public in the #HeForSheAtHome campaign. The campaign was designed to ease tensions at home using humor, and advocated for shared caring responsibilities to prevent family violence. The campaign reached approximately 46 million viewers and engaged more than 140 content producers across various social media platforms, with the core message that men can be more involved in caring roles at home.
Political Engagement Strategy in Asia and the Pacific
UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific has been instrumental in implementing the Secretary General's Political Engagement Strategy on Gender Based Violence (GBV), helping to highlight EVAW as a significant political issue on government agendas in the region. Along with country offices in Asia and the Pacific, the Regional Office supported states in the region include EVAW within their essential services. With leadership from the UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) and support from other UN agencies, ROAP has supported efforts in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and other countries in the region to adopt short- and long-term action areas identified within the Political Engagement Strategy.
Safety planning for violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic
The Safety Plan was developed under the COVID-19 pandemic context when the ‘isolation measures’ could put women at further risk of violence. The Safety Plan provides a way to think about how to stay safe at home, in community and in workplace regardless of the migratory status of women. This is designed in a way to help women, especially women migrant workers, prepare for dangers if they are in an abusive situation of fear of violence or harassment. The Safety Plan is available in 9 languages.
Action Brief: A Guide for Action to Stem Increasing Violence Against Women amid the COVID-19 Pandemic in Asia and the Pacific
This is a guide for governments, aid agencies, service providers, businesses and other groups on what to do to protect women from violence during the pandemic and its associated array of lockdowns, movement restrictions, services closures, and other disease control measures.
In response to COVID-19, UN Women Albania:
- Supported the Ministry of Health and Social Protection in the adoption of Protocol “On the operation of public and non-public residential centres, providing shelter services to victims of domestic violence and human trafficking during the COVID-19 pandemic”, followed by a video broadcast on public TV and on social media to encourage reporting VAWG during the lockdown period, which reached 400,000 views.
- Supported the Sub-Parliamentary Committee on Gender Equality to identify interventions in the area of gender equality during COVID-19 pandemic and maintained ongoing communications with local and national institutions for managing the situation of violence against women and other groups, who were at higher risk of facing domestic violence due to the lockdown.
- Supported women’s rights CSOs to conduct monitoring of referral mechanisms in 11 municipalities, including a special reporting during COVID-19 health crisis.
- Trained 37 public and non-public service providers on provision of sheltering services during COVID-19 based on the approved protocol.
- Conducted 2 Rapid Gender Assessments to (i) measure the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on women and men, including in the area of GBV; (ii) assess challenges and gaps of 6 women’s CSOs in offering services to survivors during COVID-19, resulting in adaptation of support to CSOs based on the situation.
- Supported 12 CSOs with 1,100 protective equipment units to continue service provision including accommodation in shelters during COVID-19
- Supported CSO service providers to offer direct services to approximately 400 women survivors of VAWG.
In response to the COVID 19, UN Women Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) provided immediate support to 8 Safe Houses in BiH covering their running costs, basic needs of survivors and children placed in the safe houses, and basic personal protection equipment. As a result, immediate support in the first months of the COVID 19 outbreak was provided to survivors of different forms of violence through more than 1500 SOS calls and 1300 persons through phone and online counselling. Comprehensive specialized support services within Safe Houses were provided to 176 women and children. In the months after initial response UN Women BiH has provided more structural support for improved accessibility and availability of specialized services to survivors of violence in all 8 Safe Houses in BiH. Safe Houses were able to provide additional 950 SOS calls, admit 380 women and children and provide 155 different services survivors of domestic.
Ukraine: Aimed at preventing gender-based violence against women and girls 1,200 brochures for perpetrators of domestic violence comprising information on criminalization of domestic violence, as well as educational information on increased domestic work imposed on women, especially during the Covid 19 pandemic lockdowns, promoting respectful relationships between intimate partners and household members were disseminated to men from 13 target communities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
53 staff (22 women, 31 men) of the National Police of Ukraine Departments in eastern oblasts of Ukraine, increased their knowledge on gender mainstreaming as a tool for effective integration of gender equality priorities into their work and on prevention and respond to GBV during COVID-19 pandemic.
In the response to the COVID-19, UN Women Moldova CO has conducted a rapid assessment of women’s needs, affected by gender-based violence and of the systemic response to cases of violence in the context of the Covid-19 crisis through a national NGO. Based on the needs highlighted by partner organizations, UN Women Moldova has provided essential online services through several national NGOs, to around 353 women and girls affected by violence, women's survivors of violence, 156 women migrants (including those affected by violence, or in substantial risk) for a 4-month period. In addition to this, essential products have been provided to 250 women survivors of violence beneficiaries of 15 institutions (shelters, organizations, etc.) and to 3,279 social assistants and social workers, from 36 Territorial structures of social assistance across the country, including the Transnistrian region. They have been assisted during emergency lockdown conditions and equipped with necessary items (food and hygiene products) and personal protection equipment (PPE) during COVID-19 outbreak.
In the context of Joint UN Programme „Strengthening the Republic of Moldova’s National Response to the COVID-19 Crisis”, funded by UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Multi-Partner Trust Fund (UN COVID-19 MPTF), under UN Women CO component, 295 women survivors of violence, 41 indirect beneficiaries’ members of their families and 500 members of multidisciplinary teams in different regions of the country have been provided with essential products.
As part of COVID-19 Response and Recovery Window of the Moldova 2030 SDGs Partnership Fund (SDGPF) in 2021, over 3,000 women in vulnerable situations or part of vulnerable groups (unemployed due to COVID-19 pandemic, living with HIV, from vulnerable families, with disabilities, with more than 4 children, older people within extreme poverty, etc) from both banks of the Nistru river have been supported with essential products (food, hygienic products, PPEs).
PPE items were offered to multidisciplinary teams from Cahul and Ungheni districts to maintain their work/interventions to respond to violence against women and children in times of crisis. Around 1,200 social workers from 70 localities were enabled to provide continuous social assistance to the local population. More than 3,400 vulnerable women and children from Cahul and Ungheni were better able to maintain their well-being and increase their personal protection from COVID-19 by receiving direct support (food, hygiene packages, and PPE items).
Supported by UN Women Kosovo, around 550 women/DV survivors in the shelters were provided with supplies such as food and hygienic kits, bed linen and clothes to shelters. Technical equipment to shelters around Kosovo was also delivered ensuring that the attendance of online learning classes by children in the shelters is not disrupted. Women sheltered in quarantine facility were also provided hygiene packages, clothes, PPE prior to admission. UN Women directly contributed to these results through procuring and delivering these items jointly with UNFPA. Women business owners will be able to benefit from a 2 million Euro worth of grants for allocated by the government as part of its economic recovery package. UN Women contributed to these results by collecting operative data and evidence on the gendered impact of the pandemic in the Rapid Gender Assessment of the Situation and Needs of Women in the Context of COVID-19(RGA), conducted in March-April 2020 and Rapid assessment of the socio-economic impact of the crisis on Kosovan households conducted in April-June 2020. Needs of survivors from non-majority communities were addressed through support to the shelter in North Mitrovica in receiving essential services in North Mitrovica. All DV shelters in Kosovo received working tools including beehives, tailoring and hairdressing tools, baking ovens for the large-scale production of bread and other food items as well as technical equipment. The main aim of this undertaking was to enable income generation for the shelters, in order to foster their economic empowerment and independence in a sustainable fashion. At the same time, provision of these tools offers the opportunity for capacity building for survivors residing in these shelters, who by utilizing these tools gain the ability to use those skills for possible employment opportunities or business start-ups once they leave the shelter. With the average annual turn-over of women in shelters being approximately 600, it can be estimated that up to 600 women will directly and sustainably benefit from the provided equipment Kosovo public at large was informed about:
- The pandemic and key prevention measures;
- The impact of the pandemic on women and women economies;
- DV and GBV through the 16 days of activism campaign; and
- Promotion of Kosovo Police app which can be used to report cases of DV and GBV as well as other incidents and crimes (and which now allows the easy reporting of domestic violence through an updated direct button).
The total reach of the cumulative campaigns was over 300 000 people through UN Women Kosovo social media alone. UN Women contribution to all these results was provided through technical and advocacy support.
In Tajikistan, Under UN Women technical guidance, the UNCT members jointly with the Governmental structures (health/ women empowerment/ social protection/ emergency) created joint plans, including on awareness raising and prevention. The final SPT COVID-19 Action Plan’s measures and activities were presented and well aligned with the Government’s position and the COVID-19 request issued by state authorities (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of RT, CoWFA, MoH, CoES, CYA). The activities were incorporated, along with monitoring indicators ad targets, in the Integrated Socio-Economic Response Framework. The plan also covered awareness raising elements: Dissemination of information about COVID-19, VAWG, VAC, supporting awareness raising campaigns on TV, social media networks, radio broadcasting on COVID-19 and including on the impact on women and girls, general and user-friendly information (videos, leaflets) developed for dissemination among the population. Within the Spotlight Initiative UN Women developed gender-sensitive recommendations for preparedness to and during quarantine period. Recommendations included specific measures to address GBV, protect women health workers, etc. Recommendation were handed over to MFA and other GoT bodies. In this process, the Spotlight Initiative team participated in several meetings with Government officials and various coordination platforms to advocate for the rights of women and girls in the context of COVID-19.
Rapid Gender Assessment
The report on “What Rapid Gender Assessment data says about the impact of COVID-19 on women’s and men’s lives and livelihood in Tajikistan” was prepared and published in three languages by UN Women in cooperation with Z-Analytics. The overall objective of the assessment was to assess COVID-19 impact on women, girls, men, and boys, and to compare gender issues and social norms during the outbreak period. Furthermore, the assessment aimed to increase preparedness and response efforts to the emergency created by COVID-19 and to provide a gendered insight on how the situation has affected women and men differently. The RGA assessment captured 1,500 respondents in total, both women and men above the age of 18 years. The assessment covered all regions of Tajikistan with total population 9,126.6 people. RGA data shows that, overall, 61 percent respondents received information through traditional media sources, such as television, radio, and newspapers. Furthermore, RGA data disaggregated by target regions demonstrate that in Dushanbe, a considerable number of respondents also received information through internet and social media (22 per cent) and from public announcements (3 percent). In GBAO, 19 percent of respondents received information from health workers which is high by 5–7 percentage points then DRS, Sogd and Khatlon and 11 percentage points higher than Dushanbe. Compared to other regions, more users in DRS, Sogd and Khatlon found mobile phones to be an efficient tool in getting information on COVID-19. In Sogd – where people were dependent on traditional media sources was still utilized by a considerable number of people compared to Dushanbe and DRS. Finally, in Khatlon, most respondents (62 per cent) received information on COVID-19 through traditional media sources, followed equally by internet and social media and health centers and family doctors. As indicated by RGA data in this report, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected both women and men from urban and rural areas and among all age groups. Based on RGA results, several conclusions are drawn that summarize the results of the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on these conclusions, several recommendations for various stakeholders, including national authorities and international organizations, as well as the local civil society organizations (CSO) are forwarded.
Video messages
UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP jointly with the Committee on women and family affairs and the EU delegation developed positive transformative messages to the population: The messages in informational videos on promoting positive masculinity and challenging traditional norms among young people, men and women, which were part of the programmatic activities, were adopted to be more focused on men's involvement with care work at home in order to reduce the domestic burden on women, taking into account the increase in self-isolation during COVID-19 and its negative impact of GBV. The COVID-19 response video was also produced by UN Women in cooperation with CoWFA and spread among partners and Gender Thematic Group for further dissemination. The UN Women video on the social media page of the Gender Thematic Group (Facebook) had been viewed more than 18,000.
Informational leaflets
UN Women in consultation with STP RUNOS and Committee of Women and Family Affairs developed the content for the leaflet on COVID19 impact on women and girls. Family resilience during the pandemic (81,400 copies), which has been disseminated among 596,000 people to promote harmonious and non-violent environment in the families. In addition, UN Women produced COVID-19 related leaflets (COVID-19 and women's vulnerability). These leaflets were aimed to women from vulnerable groups and contained information on help centers and hotlines as well as statistics. Teenage volunteers shared brochures and DVDs (developed by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health and Human Services) on COVID-19 prevention in their communities.
Outreach campaigns
According to the report from the Red Crescent Society, a 5-month COVID-19 and EVAWG outreach campaign challenged gender stereotypes and the notion of equality and fair distribution of the housework during the pandemic through the leaflet on Impact of COVID19 on Women and Girls. How to sustain family Resilience During the Pandemic. A progress has been made in the framework of SPT COVID-19 Response Plan and 5-month outreach campaign, which increased awareness of 596,000 in 6 SPT target districts (Isfara, B. Gafurov, Rudaki, Vose, Hissar and Yovon) on COVID-19 safety measures, prevention on violence against women and girls, available VAWG service for SGBV survivors and promoting gender equality relations. Project staff of the Red Crescent Society held several meetings with the local authorities in 6 target districts to inform about the project initiatives and obtain their support in organizing outreach campaigns to remote communities and disseminated the information materials via 120 community volunteers.
Youth Involvement
UNICEF, UNDP and UN Women jointly with Youth Committee invested in awareness among youth and children, parenting and prevention of violence against a girl-child through the Peer Education Center of the Committee. WHO and UNCT cooperated with the state ministries on development and publishing the infographics and information for the population in multi-media (WHO website). 130,000 young people benefitted from online gender-sensitive awareness-raising and community mobilisation activities led by the newly established Communication Centre at the Committee on Youth and Sport Affairs. The Communication Centre engaged young volunteers in prevention and awareness-raising activities as part of its COVID-19 response measure. UN Women provided logistical support and several informational and educational materials for dissemination. Other partners included UNDP and UNICEF, who equipped the Center with furniture and other items.
Hotline
Rendering psychological and legal consultations from PSS hub and national hotline was done through the investment on ensuring a 24/7 support, so that women and girls across Tajikistan, both those at risk and those experiencing violence, could have wider access to this service. UN Women provided the hotline with the relevant information on location and availability of services.
COVID 19 and Women living with HIV
People with HIV were also central in planning the activities. 241,058 people reached by non-stigma and discrimination messages towards women living with HIV through a social media campaign designed with the support of 12 women living with HIV.
According to the monitoring report from the official campaign website, accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Odnoklassniki the campaign created a great interest from general population. Messages of the campaign urge peoples to commit to helping create and sustain communities that promote awareness, understanding, and acceptance of people with HIV and generated over 100840 people in Instagram, 111789 people on Facebook and 28429 people on Odnoklassniki.
Women living with HIV got aware on consequences of COVID-19 impact on women living with HIV and supported by UN Women by distributing 7000 items of the leaflets on “What people living with HIV should know about COVID-19” that provided information to women on how to protect themselves, and how to respond to stigma and discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. 300 women living with HIV from Dushanbe, Sughd and Districts under Central Government Jurisdiction were equipped with key protective gear and sanitizers.
The Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, Development partners, Donors, International organizations, UN Agencies, and civil society organizations have been better informed and make evidence-based decisions to address the needs of women living with HIV on COVID-19 context.
According to the multi-stakeholder group consist of active NGOs working in the field of HIV and AIDS, representatives of National Aids Center, representatives of the development agencies, international organizations, HIV networks, including women leaders, gender experts and Tajikistan Network of women living with HIV members, developed recommendations which have been incorporated in National Response plan and addressed immediate needs of WLWH.
UN Women made a significant contribution through identifying the key actors, members of the group and coordination of the multi stakeholder group further activities. UN Women contributed to this through hiring a National Consultant to serve as Senior peer counsellor and monitor and advise other peer counsellors. The consultant engaged with the government and other key stakeholders and monitored the progress of COVID-19 prevention and response actions, especially for women living with HIV. This virtual network of peer counsellors, consisted of 10 members, eight of them have been trained in psychosocial support and peer-counselling in individual and group consultations.
A new Viber group of peer counselors has been created that enables members to pose questions and receive immediate support from others. According to the final report of the local consultant, over 486 consultations on various issues in the context of COVID-19 and DV have been provided by the peer counsellors to WLWH from different regions. Voice notes and videos are regularly shared on sanitation techniques, social distancing, health care facilities contact details such as doctors, hotlines, and more.
This group of peer counsellors revealed that the number of cases of domestic violence has significantly increased among women living with HIV in Tajikistan during the pandemic. Women received online information on HIV treatment or how to access VAW services and support centers they received a comprehensive advice and guidance on services, made available by SPT in Tajikistan.
Due to the significant increase in the number of cases of domestic violence among women living with HIV, as revealed by the group of peer counselors, a mobile application has been developed for people living with HIV to simplify medical information and treatment, to address the urgent needs and connect women to VAW services.
According to the feedback of women engaged in the testing, the application allows people living with HIV to access timely and necessary medical services. The interactive map shows location of medical centers and nongovernmental organizations supporting people living with HIV.
UN Women provided technical guidance and IT support through the local company. The application design is based on the experiences of its developers and HIV activists. For people living with HIV, the app will act as a personal electronic patient card. It will allow the users to stay in touch with doctors online, setting up reminders about when to take medication and schedule appointments. A help button contains links to hotlines on HIV treatment and prevention and psychological and legal support for women.
UN Women ESARO in partnership with the country offices, UN partner agencies and the African Union is engaging traditional authorities across Africa by working with AU to launch Council of Traditional Leaders of Africa (COTLA) / Conseil des Autorites Traditionnelles D’Afrique (CONATA), so that it effectively drives a pan-African movement of Traditional Leaders to end child marriage, FGM/C and other harmful practices. Throughout the year the African Union engaged COTLA/CONATA as an advocacy institution following the AU statutory meeting of ministers in charge of Social Development, Labor and Employment who took a decision calling for an extension of the campaign to end child marriage for a five-year period from 2019 to 2023. In the year, COTLA/CONATA convened an annual steering committee meeting in Lusaka through the support of the Republic of the Government of Zambia, and with financial and technical support of UN WOMEN.
UN Women is also supporting the framing of by-laws to harmonize the national laws with the customary laws in line with the international conventions. At least in 5 countries such initiatives are ongoing, these include, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Liberia.
In Burundi, The new law No. 1/11 of 20 May 2019 on electoral code reform, improves the level of positioning women on the electoral roll and offers more opportunities to women to stand as candidates in legislative elections. In addition, the code allows women to be elected in their husbands’ origin regions contrary to the provisions of the reformed law which limited the candidacies of women to their origin regions.
In Ethiopia: During the reporting period, UN Women supported the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) to undertake a gender analysis of Ethiopia’s draft electoral law. When the law was adopted not including all the proposed changes, UN Women ensured that the legislative committee that was working on directives based on the Electoral Law was provided with a technical support about gender sensitive stipulations to make the derivative legislations gender responsive. The gender analysis identified issues that need to be addressed in terms of affirmative action stipulations, media use during elections, security of voters and candidates, voters that may need assistance during registration and voting and representation of women in different election management bodies etc.
Moreover, UN Women conducted a National Comprehensive Mapping and Analysis of National Laws in Ethiopia as a step towards the elimination of discriminatory laws. The assessment is a comprehensive legislative analysis from a gender perspective to provide an in-depth understanding of the current legal framework and the existence of gaps and discriminatory provisions, with the long-term vision of advocating for law reform to enact new laws or repeal or revise discriminatory legislation. The first draft of the assessment first draft was submitted for review. The gender analysis will explore the vast spectrum of laws to assess their gender responsiveness and will highlight discriminatory provisions and gaps that would require to be repeal, amended or enactment through a law reform process.
Another initiative led by UN Women was the different advocacy sessions towards the adoption of the family law in the Somali region. To this end, an assessment on the general socioeconomic status of women and girls in Somali and Afar regions and barriers hindering the adoption of the family law was conducted. The key findings of the study revealed that in almost all measures of socio-economic indicators including access to education, health, water, electricity, and sanitation, women and girls in both regions have significant challenges compared to other regions of Ethiopia. With regards to the prevalence of VAWG in the two regions, findings of the study show a much higher percentage of sexual violence against women with 14.7 percent in Somali and 13 percent in Afar regions when compared with that of the EDHS, 1% in Somali followed by 4% in Afar.
Most importantly, the study identified the factors hindering the adoption of family laws in Afar and Somali regions to be lack of political commitment, structural and institutional factors (competing priorities and inadequate financing) and social and cultural factors which are highly influenced by religion. The controversy on marriageable age, bigamy, period of widowhood, irregular union, child adoption, and Paternity issues were also among the causes for the resistance towards adopting Family law. UN women will continue popularizing the findings and recommendations of the study and undertaking policy advocacy at different level with the aim of harmonizing the regional family laws with that is the international standards.
The legal adjustment in the main electoral law has been finalized with the legislative drafting team taking some of the recommendations provided. However, the legislative process for matters that will be guided by directives from the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia, it is still an ongoing process that will also continue in 2020 which is the election year and beyond.
In regard to the preliminary work on the “Assessment of the discriminatory law” conducted for legal adjustments that will support and recommend the repeal or revision of all formal laws that directly or indirectly discriminate against women and girls, UN Women will continue supporting the Federal Attorney General and other relevant institutions on the legal adjustment based on the recommendations provided.
The draft Somali and Afar assessment on the barriers for adoption of the federal revised family law, which was conducted in 2019, identified key areas that needs better advocacy coupled with continuous dialogues to bring the expected changes. Some of these areas include; enhancing the knowledge and understanding of the grass root community on the benefit of putting in place an alternative family dispute resolution in addition to the customary and religious systems, enhancing capacity of women and men parliamentarians to advocate for the adoption of family law, and facilitate a knowledge exchange with other Muslim dominated countries who have adopted family law that is in line with international standards. Using the existing partnership with the regional government and faith actors, UN Women will work towards the repeal of the existing regional law in 2020.
In Mozambique, the government of Mozambique continued to demonstrate strong commitment on advancing GEWE including fulfilment of regional and international obligations, which are evidenced by the following achievements: approval of the “Lei contra os casamentos Prematuros[1]” (Law against early marriage) (The Law was approved by the Parliament on 18th July 2019 and with its approval early unions in Mozambique are considered a crime. The law condemns until 8 years of imprisonment to adults who consent or obliged a child to accept a union and 12years for an adult who live in a forced union with a child girl); approval of the revised “Lei fa Familia (Family Law) e “Lei das Sucessões” (Inheritance Law). Additionally, 4 other Laws were reviewed to better respond to the issues included in the approved laws, namely: “Lei da Familia”- Family Law (Lei 22. 2019); “Lei da Revisão do codigo Penal”- Law of criminal code (Lei 24 de 2019); “Lei da revisão do Código do Processo Penal”- Law of review of the Criminal process code (Lei 25 de 2019) and the “Lei da revisao do Codigo de execução das Penas” –Law of review of the criminal process code- (Lei 26 de 2019).
In Rwanda, Under the equality in law by 2030 initiative, UN Women provided technical and financial support to the Legal Aid Forum, a network of 38 national and international NGOs, universities, lawyers’ associations, faith-based organizations and trade unions to conduct an assessment aimed at determining whether there are any discriminatory provisions in Rwandan laws. The implementation of this initiative involves different actors from government and civil society organizations through a steering committee put in place for quality assurance. The Legal Aid Forum has submitted a draft report waiting for final validation by stakeholders. The report recognizes tremendous achievements for gender mainstreaming in Rwanda’s legal framework. However, there are still few provisions that need to be worked out through legislative reforms.
In South Sudan, the Reconstituted National Constitution Amendment Committee (R-NCAC) has been working on reviewing the various laws including the security sector laws. UN Women provided technical support in review of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army Act 2009, the National Security Services Act 2014, the Police Service Act 2009 and the Prisons Service Act 2011.
In Sudan, UN Women has supported the women’s movement to voice their concerns and claim the repeal and reform of laws violating women’s human rights such as the public Order Law which was then repealed in December 2019.
In Somalia, UN Women in close collaboration with UNFPA, UNDP and UNSOM is actively engaged in passage of the Sexual Offence Bill and FGM Bill. The Sexual Offence Bill has already been approved by the cabinet of ministers and awaits endorsement at the parliament. The FGM bill is in the final stages of drafting and soon will be presented to the cabinet of ministers. The Sexual Offences Bill (SOB) seeks to serve the purpose of combating sexual violence and consolidating laws of sexual offences, providing for punishment of perpetrators of sexual offenses, providing for procedural and evidential requirements during trial of sexual offenses and other related matters.
In Tanzania, UN Women provided technical and financial support to the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal affairs (MoCLA), Tanzania Women Parliamentary Group (TWPG), Women Fund Tanzania and the Women’s Coalition on the Constitution Review and Leadership For advocacy to repeal the following laws that discriminate against women and girls: The Law of Marriage Act (LMA) of 1971 sanctions the marriage of girls as young as 14 years, while requiring boys to be adults. During 2019, the Tanzania Court of Appeal upheld a previous High Court judgment declaring the minimum age of marriage for girls, as set out in the Law of Marriage Act, unconstitutional. As a result, the National Assembly of the United Republic of Tanzania will need to pass legislation bringing this law in line with international standards. UN Women is currently strategizing with and supporting the Tanzania Women Parliamentary Group (TWPG) and the Ministry of Constitutional and Legal affairs (MoCLA) for advocacy to pass the required legislation.
In Uganda, UN Women provided technical support to the government in the legislative developments. Some of these include:
- The Sexual Offences Bill that seeks to consolidate all laws relating to sexual offences and provide procedural and evidential requirements during trial of sexual offences in addition to measures to check sexual harassment in public places.
- Employment Bill 2019 that seeks to amend the Employment Act 2006 to operationalise the provisions of Art.40 of the Uganda Constitution and align it to the ILO convention No.190.
- The Marriage and Divorce bill which brings together all laws governing a Marriage and its dissolution;
- The legal aid bill that seeks to ensure indignant citizens access free legal aid services; and
- The Domestic Violence Act (DVA) which provides protection of women from violence committed to them in a domestic setting
In Zimbabwe, UN Women supported work on the Marriages Bill by conducting a gender analysis of the bill and supported development of an alternative marriages bill as a reference document to inform parliamentary debates. The Bill seeks to consolidate the laws relating to marriages in Zimbabwe into one Act of Parliament and as such repeal the Marriages Act [Chapter 5:11] and the Customary Marriages Act [Chapter 5:07]. The Bill also criminalises child marriage and decriminalises HIV transmission (repealing Section 79 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act), both of which were key advocacy issues for UN Women in the reporting year.
At the East & Southern African regional level, to bring the global commitments to the field and to create an enabling safe, secure and equitable environment in line with the UN Secretary-General's guidance, a Training of Trainers program on “Gender Parity” and “Prevention of Sexual Harassment, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse” was organized in partnership with UN Women HQ with participation by 42 participants from 12 countries in the region representing UN Women, UNPFA, UNHCR, IOM, ICAO and UNDSS in Mombasa, Kenya. Following the training at least 5 countries have replicated the training in their countries and also took initiatives to establish and strengthen the PSEA task forces.
In Kenya, UN Women continued to play a key role in convening and leading stakeholders to demand accountability for ending violence against women and girls, while at the same time ensuring access to quality and essential services for survivors. As one of the key highlights, UN Women together with its’ partners convened a National GBV Conference in 2019 bringing together over 450 participants from across the country with the aim to harness accountability for GBV prevention and response. As a result of the Conference a communique with 27 recommendations articulating roles for each duty bearer was finalized.
Standardization of GBV training was improved through UN Women support in the development of the Safe Spaces and Applicability Manual , the GBV Service Providers Data Bank tools, and the Model Gender-Based Violence Recovery Centers Guidance Note. These tools are expected to provide a harmonized training curriculum for use by duty bearers while the guidance note will provide a framework for provision of GBV services within a multi-sectoral framework. The Harmonized GBV Training Manual was also finalized. Further KCO led in the development of the “Implementation Guide for the Global Women’s Safety Framework” . The guide to implementation provides a “how to” and a “step by step” guidance for tea chain producers who are keen to address sexual harassment. Prevention and response to GBV by the National Police Service was strengthened through KCO’s support in the development of a National Action Plan (NAP). The NAP provides for the creation of a special gender crimes unit within the policy system and provides opportunities for all actors to strengthen their partnership with the Police, by seeking to support different aspects of the action plan.
A number of capacity building and trainings were undertaken targeting law enforcement and other officials in the ESAR countries. Most significantly, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe also benefited from the Spotlight funding and undertook a number of initiatives aimed at training and capacity building of relevant actors in addressing VAW, HP and promotion of SRHR.
Egypt CO
UN Women Egypt in close collaboration with the National Council for Women (NCW) supported the comprehensive review of the Personal Status Laws (family laws) and Penal Code to analyze the impact of such laws on women's ability to access justice for all forms of violence. The process brought together multiple actors in the justice chain, including members of the judiciary, prosecution, police, social affairs, in addition to specialized councils to develop draft laws and/or amend existing ones to prevent violence against women, punish perpetrators, and ensure the rights of survivors. As a result of several rounds of consultations by national stakeholders, a draft comprehensive law on violence against women, that aims to support a comprehensive response to survivors of violence, including the provision of support and protection services, was developed and will be submitted to parliament by the NCW.
UN Women has been advocating for the passage of The Anti-Domestic Violence Law, introduced to parliament in 2015 and still under review. In January 2017, the law was presented to discussion in front of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, however it failed to pass the committees. The strengths of the draft bill include provisions for services for domestic violence survivors, protection orders (restraining orders) and penalties for their breach, and the establishment of a cross-ministerial committee to combat domestic violence. However, the law does not set penalties for committing the crime of domestic violence, does not repeal provisions in the Iraqi Penal Code that condone domestic violence (such as weaker penalties for ‘honor crimes’), and prioritizes reconciliation over justice.
In November, an amendment to the Personal Status Law (No. 188 of 1959) was proposed that would allow men to marry girls as young as 9 years old. The bill indicates that when issuing decisions on personal status issues, the court should follow the rulings of religious scholars for Sunni or Shiite sects, depending on the husband's faith (i.e. the Scholars' Congregation at the Shiite Endowment Diwan or Scholars' Fatwa Council which represents Sunni jurisprudence). The efforts of CSO’s, women activists, women committee in the parliament and UN agencies including UN Women led to the withdraw of the draft law from the parliament agenda by mid-November.Morocco MCO
UN Women first acted through supporting the civil society in its advocacy efforts to align draft law no 103.13 with international norms and standards, and more especially through supporting the memorandums of the coalition Printemps de la Dignité composed of 25 NGOs throughout the national territory. The coalition is specialized in advocating to the government and to the Parliament on laws and public policies related to EVAW, and has developed a Memorandum on each of the expected reforms and defended their arguments before the Ministry of Justice. UN Women has supported the coalition providing it with tools and guidance on international norms, laws and strategies to EVAW.
UN WomenPalestine supported national counterparts to develop a Family Protection Bill (FPB) in line with international human rights standards. UNW's support included technical advice to the technical committee that was formed by the Council of Ministries to work on the FPB. UNW also facilitated the engagement of the CSOs in this process through sensitizing partners on the rights of CSOs to take part in this process and supporting CSOs simultaneously by providing them with technical and financial support to advocate for the adoption of a responsive bill. UNW has also supported the justice sector strategy to identify legislative priorities for the years 2017- 2022 , which included the penal code, the personal status law, the family protection bill, cybercrime law and others.
Lebanon PP
UN Women Lebanon, in cooperation with several activist civil society organizations, supported a campiagn in 2016 to repeal article 522 of the Penal Code related to rape-marriage, which releases the perpetrator in case he marries the victim. In June 2017, the campaing efforts were materialized with the approval of the Parliament to repeal the article.
Lebanon PP
In 2017, 3 induction/capacity building sessions on GBV tools for around 12 youth-led NGOs active in different areas in Lebanon was organized. The main focus of the induction is Gender Roles & Societal Expectations from both Women and Men in Public and Private Spheres. Furthermore, to support the role of youth-led and women-led organizations, UN Women organized in partnership with ABAAD a GBV/Masculinity TOT training workshop in October 2017 which involved 9 CSOs. The 3 days’ workshop aimed at building the capacities of participating NGOs on the concepts of human security, gender based violence and masculinities and addressing negative coping mechanism. The CSOs were able to utilize their newly acquired knowledge and technical skills while conducting GBV awareness raising sessions within their community to address stigma against GBV survivors and reduce all forms of violence.
The UN Women Gender Specialist secondee to OCHA has been working closely with national and sub-national cluster coordinators, gender focal points and humanitarian funding partners to improve gender outcomes, including conducting training on Gender and Age Marker for 90 participants.
In Algeria, UN Women has reached an important milestone, in strenghtening the Ministry of National Solidarity, Family and Women Condition's (MSNFCF) capacities to collect data on women and girls victims of violence. A modernized and common data collection framework integrating international guidelines and indicators on WSV, with a focus on SDG 5, was developed by UN Women in partnership with the MSNFCF. The new administrative databased named "AMANE" will allow the MSNFCF and its different structures to collect comprehensive data on Survivors seeking aid from its services. All 54 professionals from the Directorates for Social Action and Solidarity (DASS) and from Women Shelter's have benefited from a specific training on how to use AMANE with a component on gender-based violence and gender issues.
As part of UN Women efforts in supporting the Palestinian police to improve the Family Protection and Juvenile Unit (FPJU) performance in dealing with VAW cases, and supporting the implementation of the capacity building plan of the FJPU, a two-day workshop has been conducted in Jan 2018 on cybercrimes against women and girls. 24 police officers from FJPU and the cybercrime unit have been targeted and agreed on recommendations to improve coordination between both units whe dealing with VAW cases. following that, UNW facilitated a meeting between heads of the specialized units of the cyber-crime and VAW, to reflect on the workshops main points and present the findings and recommendations. Both units agreed to discuss internally proposed arrangements, including the assginment of the FJPU as the first responder for the cyber-crime -violence against women and the aspects of coordination mechanisms between the units when dealing with VAW casesto ensure privacy and confidentiality.
UN Women has reinforced and developed partnerships with key departments for the provision of essential services to WSV. Justice professionals (magistrates and legal social workers) were assessed and trained on women’s access to justice and on human trafficking, and benefited from South-South exchanges with their counterparts from Palestine. The training aimed for the magistrates focused on the role of the security services during the investigation phases, the investigation of trafficking cases, and the identification and protection of victims. The dozen magistrates-experts will, following the training cycle, will conduct similar trainings to the rest of the magistrates within the Ministry of Justice thus ensuring national ownership with regards to human trafficking best practices.
UN Women and AWLN held a series of workshops with parliamentarians and legal practitioners on SGBV and women’s access to justice in order to raise awarness of the legal framework, gaps adn challenges, and how to promote services for survivors.
UN Women supported the Jordanian National Commission for Women in strengthening its positioning with female MPs, organizing three capacity building initiatives during the reporting for members of the women’s caucus in the Parliament and adressing issues related to their role in legislative writing, budget design and oversight, implementation of the SDGs, and constituency-building through online outreach. At the margins of one of the sessions, a dedicated session to review the draft cyber crime law was also conducted.
In March 2018, UN Women held two consultation meetings with civil society and government partners in Baghdad (24-26) and Erbil (27-29) to analyze humanitarian response plans from a gender perspective. The meetings also served to build a foundation for improved coordination and communication between government and civil society, resulting in the prioritization of the needs of women and girls.
UN Women Egypt in collaboration with the Office of the Public Prosecution and UNODC organized training workshops for 160 members of the Public Prosecution on how to effectively prosecute crimes related to violence against women. Topics covered included gender sensitive evidence-gathering and investigation, understanding the relevant legal articles in the Penal code and identifying common legal and practical issues faced by women victims/survivors, in addition to the provision of support and protection of survivors. Furthermore, in collaboration with the National Council for Women (NCW), training workshops were conducted for 250 recent law graduates on a career path to becoming judges to elevate their competencies to adjudicate cases related to VAW. Additionally, capacity development support was provided to the Women’s Complaints office of the NCW to strengthen their capacity to provide legal awareness and support services to women victims/survivors of violence, in addition to 80 employees of government-run women’s shelters and the supervisory ministry, to provide protection and support services to women victims/survivors of violence.
DRC
After the promulgation of the revised Family Code, United Nations agencies mobilized to disseminate texts and laws favorable to women's rights (the Family Code, the Parity Act, the Child Protection Act, the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence and the Act on the Protection of Persons Living with HIV), The Maputo Protocol on Gender and Development, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Security Council resolutions (notably Resolution 1325) during the 16 Days of Activism campaigns in November 2017, Amani Festival in February 2018 and Women's Month in March 2018. A draft bill on the reparation and compensation mechanism for victims of sexual violence has been submitted to the Senate. The agencies support the government in the process of reviewing the national strategy to combat sexual and gender-based violence and the national action plan 1325.
SENEGAL
Senegal has a legal framework favorable to the elimination of gender-based violence through the law against excision, the law on parity, the law for nationality, the Senegal Emerging Plan, the National Strategy for Equity and Gender Equality, the National Strategy for the Promotion of Rights and Protection of Children.
CABO VERDE
In the continued efforts to support the implementation of the CEDAW and other international and regional normative frameworks on women’s human rights, in 2017 the UN Women supported the evaluation of the 6-years implementation of the law. The evaluation has provided several insights and evidences of the best practices and lesson learnt that informed the Government in how to improve the procedures and promote new responses to face the challenges of the implementation of the GBV law. This analysis has provided key elements for the monitoring of the national goals for eliminating GBV in alignment with international human rights and gender frameworks and provided guidance’s to where the actors responsible for the application of the law should improve to better tackle this phenomenon in Cabo Verde. The Evaluation of the Implementation of GBV Law has been a powerful instrument of discussion and analyses, UNW supported the government by presenting the final results to public and stakeholders. The conducted evaluation has shown, that, even so, challenges persist, including with the moroseness of judicial responses and in the institutionalization of victim support services, geared toward their sustainability thereof.
MALI
Thanks to the support of development partners including UN Women and a draft law against female circumcision submitted to the National Assembly (NA) of Mali by the PACTE Group, the idea of a law against GBV was formed on the initiative of a working commission composed of national and international organizations under the aegis of the NGO ACORD Mali supported by UN Women. The Government of Mali through the Ministry of Women has taken the lead through the National Programme to Combat the Practice of Excision (PNLE). A committee to monitor the law was set up by ministerial order and this committee delegated a technical team of five national and international experts (two lawyers and an anthropologist from Mali and two volunteer Canadian legal advisors) to draft a bill against GBV in Mali. The Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Justice will bring this draft bill before the Government and the National Assembly.
CAMEROON
In humanitarian settings, the capacity and the level of ownership of police forces as a primary protection actor on violence against women issues has significantly increased in 2017. Their increased commitment and actions in the field translating the humanitarian principles and national standards in coordination with other humanitarian actors resulted in gender-based violence cases received by gender desk officers at police stations. UNWOMEN also started to work with judicial actors on VAW in 2017 through magistrat training, and it is expected that further collaborative work with Ministry of Justice will continue in 2018 to strengthen their capacity to treat cases with sensitivity and full understanding of the VAW issues
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.
NIGER
The Constitution of 25 November 2011 and all subsequent texts support the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including the quota law which grants a certain number of elective and nominative places to women the 1325 decree 2017 on the retention of girls in school. All these texts exist but the effectiveness of their application remains problematic.
GUINEA CONAKRY, TOGO, CHAD
Knowledge production and advocacy on violence and maternal health
In Guinea Conakry, about 100 health workers have been trained on GBV and its consequences.
In Togo, the same study generated strong interest from partners. The United Nations system and UNFPA are taking a closer look at this phenomenon.
In Guinea, the capacities of 100 health providers were sensitized on violence in delivery rooms with the contribution of several local NGOs.
Chad has organized advocacy for the dissemination of the penal code through the training of community leaders on the provisions of the penal code and Law 029 prohibiting child marriage.
All new personnel receive a welcome letter to alert them that they need to complete all mandatory courses within 90 days of starting and these include three online courses related to ethics:
Course Name | Direct Link /Contact | Modality/ Mandate |
Prevention of Workplace Harassment, Sexual Harassment, and Abuse of Authority in the Workplace | Online learning programme. | |
Ethics and Integrity at the United Nations | Online learning programme. | |
Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse | Online learning programme. |
In addition to mandatory courses, there are non-mandatory quarterly workshops internally on Ethics and the Workplace provided both to HQ and field-based staff, both in person and online.
DRC
Strengthening of the capacities of several sectoral ministry officials (gender, health, justice, interior, defense) and NGOs in several areas, especially results-based management, protocols for dealing with sexual violence, forensic expertise, etc.
SENEGAL
In Senegal, sector ministry staff benefited from capacity building on GBV. Women leaders, young people through cultural and sports associations and local communities through committees to combat violence.
CABO VERDE
The continuous support provided in training capacities resulted in an increased capacity of key players, namely the police, the justice sector and the civil society organizations in implementing specific activities and actions in alignment with the recommendations of the conducted evaluation of the law implementation, namely spread awareness activities, assessment of the Rehabilitation Program of Men Offenders of GBV and the integration of GBV data and information in the information system of the operational management of the Ministry of Internal Administration.
MALI
UN Women trained 17 young Slam artists, who in turn reinforced the knowledge of 180 young students, girls and boys, who wrote and proclaimed poetic texts on GBV prevention and prevention during a slam contest in Bamako. A pool of 48 police officers was trained on the prevention and management of GBV survivors. 30 men from the media, the written and spoken press benefited from capacity building to raise awareness for prevention and report GBV cases to raise awareness among the population.
The support of the national police in the fight against GBV has been strengthened through a validated action plan that clearly defines the intervention strategy and results by 2020.
CAMEROON
UNW Cameroon training police officers. The capacity and the level of ownership of police forces as a primary protection actor on violence against women issues has significantly increased in 2017. Ministry of gender staff working in the call center/GBV mobile Units had also been trained while magistrate of the ministry of justice had also been trained on GBV principles.
LIBERIA
Liberia: Capacity building for national institutions with training conducted for 83 Women and Children Protection Officers, 65 prosecutors, city solicitors and court officials and 81 health workers.
NIGER
Representatives of sectoral ministries, state institutions, men and women in the media (even a declaration of commitment for the promotion of women's rights in Niger), local authorities have benefited from capacity building of the UN WOMEN office on GBV, gender and the promotion of women's rights.