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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.
DRC: The DRC is a signatory to several international agreements and texts without restriction. The internal legal framework is improving with the promulgation in July 2016 of the revised Family Code. The challenge remains strict law enforcement. The country is also a signatory to international agreements for peace, notably the Addis Ababa Agreement, the Kampala Agreement, etc.
SENEGAL: Senegal has endorsed the international conventions for the elimination of violence against women, which consider such violence as a violation of human rights.
CABO VERDE: IX CEDAW report elaborated with UNW support
CAMEROON: UNW Cameroon worked to reduce violence against women through creating a legislative and policy environment in line with international standards on EVAW and other forms of discrimination and promoting social norms, attitudes and behaviors at community and individual levels to prevent VAW. A national strategy on Gender Based Violence has been adopted in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender. Moreover, women and girls among refugees, IDPs, and host communities, including Boko Haram survivors know and use the protection mechanisms available to them through Un Women intervention in collaboration of others humanitarian actors
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.
Some members of parliament have introduced a bill to amend the 2006 Rape Law to allow bail for perpetrators accused of sexual violence.
UN Women Liberia supported the National Council of Chiefs and Elders and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to host a 3 days consultative session with over 150 traditional leaders and paramount chief to discuss positive aspect of traditional practices in Liberia. The Forum agreed to conduct an inventory of all grooves or “Traditional bush schools” as well as a list of practitioners in the 10 counties that practice Female Genital Mutilation.
NIGER
Like all other African countries, Niger has ratified international conventions and agreements for the elimination of forms of violence against women. But texts like CEDAW have been ratified with reservations. the taking of appropriate measures to eliminate all customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women, especially in matters of inheritance; the modification of the socio-cultural patterns and patterns of men and women; the right of married women to choose their domicile or residence; the equality of spouses in the choice of surname ;the attribution of the same rights to women as men have in deciding the number and space of births and ultimately the attribution of the same rights and responsibilities to women as men have during marriage and at its dissolution. This is merely a misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the terms of the text. To this misinterpretation is added the lack of knowledge of these texts by the actors of justice and the litigants themselves; the amalgam between positive law and Muslim law, custom, .... the UN Women Niger office works for a better consideration of women's rights and the fight against GBV.
NIGERIA
Within the period there was no passage of any international bill into law in Nigeria, however, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition)(VAPP) Bill and this was signed into law by the former president on the 25th of May 2015 is being utilized by lawyers and advocates to facilitate access to justice for women and girls. UN Women engagement with national coalition of stakeholders - Legislative Advocacy Coalition on VAW (LACVAW) has continued to ensure that the advocacy for implementation is amplified. UN Women also continue to partner with the Gender Technical Unit (GTU) to ensure that legislators are effectively lobbied for issues that affect women
UN Women has embarked on a number of prevention and awareness raising campaigns and advocacy such as “Take a Stand” initiative.
Internally, within the UN system, UN Women is coordinating closely with other UN agencies on issues related to Prevention of and Reporting on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (by UN personnel)
In addition to this, we have UN Women Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) focal points in all of our six regions whose roles within UN Women are to:
- communicate their role and raise awareness of the ST/SGB/2003/13;
- to ensure that complaints against the individuals/entities to whom the ST/SGB/2003/13 applies are reported to OIOS;
- to report to the UN Women SEA working group at HQ in order to share any issues, cases or local observations; and gather data for onward reporting;
- to educate the UN Women workforce regarding the prevention of SEA.
DRC
Support granted to the government for the elaboration of the National Strategic Development Plan 2017-2021. United Nations agencies are engaged in the process of developing UNDAF 2019-2022.
SENEGAL
UN Women through the Ministry of Women, Family and Gender supports the Government of Senegal to reduce gender-based violence and to care for GBV victims for social reintegration, through the implementation of a multisectoral approach to violence prevention.
CABO VERDE
Strengthened capacities of civil society organization and men alliances for the implementation of the GBV Law and gender equality initiatives was another important component of UNW support to contribute to better an approach in fighting GBV. Cabo Verde has been witnessing the increasing of men’s engagement on fighting gender-based violence, by promoting a positive masculinity. White Ribbon Association – Cabo Verde has been the leader in promoting gender equality through positive masculinity focus on fighting to end violence against women and girls in Cabo Verde many of their members are part of the Government Rehabilitation Program for Men Offenders of GBV (created in 2012 with UN Women’s support). In the same line, UNW has also provided technical and financial support to the assessment of the implementation status of the programme, contributing to the systematization of lessons learned and good practices of the programme, and to the formulation of concrete recommendations for the elaboration of the next phase of the programme.
CAMEROON
Unwomen Cameroon work alongside with the ministry of gender and more than 300 stakeholders in different worshop to developed and adopte the GBV national Strategy, and the National plan on FGM). And the ministry of justice to train magistrate and to look into gender aspect in the new penal code previously adopted.
LIBERIA
UN Women Liberia is supporting the Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Protection in the development of a revised National Plan of Action for the Prevention and Management of Gender Based Violence. The initial plan covered the period 2006 – 2011 Gender Based Violence National Action Plan.
The Revised National Gender Policy is undergoing some minor review for adoption.
NIGER
With the support of the Ministry for the Advancement of Women and Child Protection UN Women, the UN office implements activities within the framework of the National gender policy, the national strategy to combat GBV, for the promotion of women's rights, gender equality and better management of GBV survivors.
UN Women internal policies:
UN Women has policies which are available to its personnel. They receive these through their welcome letter the moment they join the organization, available links on our intranet pages, and in house non/mandatory courses and information sessions.
Here are the policies:
- The UN-Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct defines misconduct and the mechanisms within UN-Women for reporting and investigating it. The investigations function for UN-Women is assumed by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which has the mandate to investigate all reports of alleged misconduct involving staff members and allegations of fraud and corruption, whether committed by staff members or outside parties.
- TheUN-Women Policy on Protection Against Retaliationestablishes "whistleblower protection."
- The UN Women Policy on Workplace Harassment and Abuse of Authority is a helpful document in providing definitions, measures of prevention, and steps to resolving improper conduct.
UN Women undertakes several measures to address sexual violence in conflict situations related to the UN Women workforce such as:
- Message of prohibition of sexual misconduct and SEA and importance of reporting repeatedly communicated by ED.
- Since February 2017, UN Women has provided training to personnel in over 20 field offices and HQ sections.
- Launch of UN Women’s initiative “Take a Stand” in 2016, which provides guidance not only on how to report cases but also on services available to the affected staff member – from telecommuting, to salary advances, to advanced leave requests, and assisting in facilitating their access to safe and secure spaces.
- Established a network of focal points on SEA in headquarters and its Regional Offices from whom staff can request guidance on reporting allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse.
- Ensuring that where there are ANY allegations of SEA or other sexual misconduct committed by UN Women personnel or partners, they are promptly referred for investigation.
- Ensuring that alleged victims are referred to the appropriate service providers for protection, medical care and support.
- Collaborating with the Secretary-General’s Victims’ Rights Advocate Ms. Jane Connors on sexual exploitation and abuse and victims’ assistance.
Egypt CO
UN Women Egypt in partnership with UN HABITAT carried out a gender analysis of transport patterns in Greater Cairo with the aim of informing the planning, design and tendering of the Bus Rapid Transit national project. A survey was conducted at public transport terminals to gather quantitative and qualitative sex-disaggregated data on passengers’ characteristics, travel patterns, travel costs, security and safety feelings, etc. Sex-disaggregated data proved to be useful to understand public transport usage and access by both women and men, their preferred transport modes, their experiences of harassment, threats to safety, cost of transport, etc. Then, to obtain in-depth information on women’s specific issues in relation to accessibility, affordability and safety in public transport, women-only focus groups were held in three different districts, where women’s mobility patterns were discussed, as well as issues related to their safety and security. In addition, train operators were asked a series of questions on transport, choice of routes, issues related to female passengers’ safety, including some questions on their perception and attitudes towards sexual harassment. The aim of this exercise was also to identify potential economic opportunities for women in the transport sector.
UN Women conducted two research pieces in partnership with Oxfam. A Gender and Conflict Analysis in ISIS Affected Communities of Iraq was published May 2017. A Gender Gap Analsyis is in the final review stages and is expected to be published in the second quarter of 2018.
In collaboration with the Centre for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), UN Women Regiona Office for the Arab States published the study "Estimating Costs of Marital Violence in the Arab Region" as a part of a regional project on estimating the cost of violence against women in the Arab region. This economic model measures the costs of intimate partner violence by estimating household costs associated with violence, community level costs of service provision, and costs related to women’s loss of productivity in the labour market. https://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20arab%20states/attachments/2017/estimating-costs-marital-violence-operational-model-english.pdf?la=en&vs=4616
In 2017, UN Women and REACH launched a report aimed to increase the understanding of the impact of the crisis on women’s access to basic services. The report identified specific issues related to harasshment and perception of safety among women living in communities hosting a larger number of refugees, including through their experience in accessing basic services and public spaces. UN Women is currently working with the Minister of Social Development and other actors in order to address key reccomendations presented in the report through targeted programming and pilot interventions in various Governorates of Jordan.
In 2017, UN Women supported the production of 3 unprecedented reports: (i) through the regional Programme “Men and Women for Gender equality”, UN Women supported the conduct of the International Men and women for Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), a study that provides a holistic look at the lives of men and women in the region of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, including their experiences as children, (ii) through the same programme, UN Women supported the Center for Women's Studies in Islam (CERFI), a research center placed under the official religious institution to conduct a survey on perceptions regarding Qiwamah, i.e. the husband’s duty of providing financial support for his wife and children, (iii) in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, UN Women conducted the evaluation of the Family Mutual Aid Fund created in 2011 to support women who do not receive alimony payments.
Aiming at supporting the Palestinian police's Family Protection and Juvenile Unit (FPJU) in data collection and in effectively managing VAW cases, SAWASYA joint Program will support the developemnt of RIAM (case information management system that will support the FPJU of the Palestinian Police and the Specialized prosecutors on VAW to applying the risk assessment template for GBV cases and preparing for the automation of the risk assessment process through this system). UNW has supported the FPJU and the Specialized Public Prosecutors in applying the risk assessment template in preparation for the automation of the risk assessment process through RIAM system. A workshop took place in August 2017 for police officers and specialized public prosecutors to introduce the risk assessment template (RAT) that was piloted for 6 months in 2 districts.
UNW Palestine office conducted different researches on VAW and women's access to justice to generate, documemt and disseminate knowledge and awareness.These included a study on women's access to justice in East Jerusalem, entitled " In the absence of justice", a study on legal aid to women entitled " the impact of legal aid on womenn", women's access to formal and informal justice in Gaza, informal justice system and gender equality in the West Bank, the Situation of Access to informal and formal justice systems for women and girls with dissabilities.
Algeria PP
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.
In 2016, Serbia continued to make significant improvements in multi-sector coordination and monitoring of violence against women, with substantial support from UN Women. Twenty municipalities in Serbia achieved high levels of multi-sector cooperation in response to cases of violence against women. Professionals from the Centers for Social Work, health and educational institutions, judiciary and police participated at the case conferences on individual cases of violence and in line with the local level protocols responded to the specific needs of women victims of violence. The women victims of violence benefited from the services and protection measures provided by the local institutions in a timely, complementary and coordinated manner. The Results of the case conferences are captured in reports and published by the Provincial Secretariat for Demography, Social Welfare and Gender Equality (PSEEGE). PSEEGE and UN Women piloted a model for monitoring violence in Vojvodina Province and initiated discussions to implement the model at the national level.
UN Women supported the office of the UN Secretary General in drafting three Secretary General’s reports on " Intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilations", "Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls" and "Trafficking in women and girls”. These reports were presented to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly and have served as a basis for the negotiations of new resolutions on these subjects, which were approved at its 71st Session.
As in previous years, UN Women held the commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women under the banner of the Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women in November 2016. The commemoration placed a spotlight on the critical need for sustainable financing for efforts to end violence against women and girls across the globe within the particular framework of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The event began with remarks from the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Karel van Oosterom of the Permanent Representative of the Netherlands to the UN, and UN Trust Fund programme participant Aiturgan Djoldoshbekova. It also included a musical performance from The Color Purple, Tony Award winner for Best Musical Revival, and a panel discussion on sustainable financing to end violence against women and girls.