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In El Salvador, officials of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the Public Prosecutor Office and the Police participated in an expert seminar, organized by the OHCHR, on legal frameworks to protect women from violence, including femicide. Hide

The OHCHR/Human Rights and Transitional Justice Section in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste monitored the response of the formal justice system to reported cases of violence against women, including whether traditional justice mechanisms are given priority in such cases. In March 2010, through participation in working groups, the OHCHR also provided a human rights and protection commentary on draft governmental policy related to emergency shelters and safe houses for survivors of violence against women. Hide

OHCHR, along with the Office of the SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict, DPKO and UNDP, worked on the operationalization of the team of experts to be deployed to situations of particular concern with respect to sexual violence in armed conflict, in order to assist national authorities to strengthen the rule of law, as called for under Security Council Resolution 1888. At the headquarters level, UNDP and other UN entities have developed a joint programme document and secured seed funding from the UN Action Against Sexual Violence Multi-donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for an initial six month period to recruit and put in place the team of experts. Hide

The Regional Office of the OHCHR in Panama has provided, occasionally together with UNDP, technical support for the elaboration of a law on violence against women, which is expected to be adopted on 25 November 2010. Hide

The OHCHR/Human Rights and Transitional Justice Section in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste provided a human rights commentary on the draft law against domestic violence. Hide

In May 2010, seven UN agencies (UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, UNDP, UNHCR, OHCHR, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO) have launched a three-year UN Joint Program "Ending violence against women - a national priority for Kyrgyzstan". Four strategic compenents of the program include: 1) strengthening policy framework, including through the implementation of the recommendations of the UN human bodies and procedures; 2) improving official data collection system and analysis of collected data; 3) awareness-raising, sensititation and capacity-building with the view to change gender stereotypes; 4) protecting and helping survivors of gender-based violence. Hide

OHCHR’s country offices in Bolivia, Colombia, Russia and Uganda were part of UN Inter-Agency Groups working on gender issues in support of national and local authorities, the judiciary and civil society to develop legal frameworks, on combating sexual and gender-based violence.OHCHR’s country office in Guatemala assisted State institutions and, in coordination with the Interagency Group on Women’s Rights, provided technical advice to State officials to reform the law to prevent domestic violence. In Sudan, OHCHR worked with the human rights component of UNMIS to propose amendments to existing rape laws. In the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), OHCHR participated in a special session of the legal Working Group of the Palestinian Legislative Council during which a draft decree-law against honour killings was discussed and was subsequently approved. Hide

OHCHR in Guatemala supported the Gender Unit of the Police to strengthen the abilities of law enforcement personnel to address violence against women. OHCHR country offices continued capacity-building for the monitoring and investigation of cases of violence against women. OHCHR Uganda (Lira) organized on 28 May 2009 a training on human rights and gender-based violence for members of the Unit Disciplinary Committee (the UDC is the lowest court in the hierarchy of the administration of justice in the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF)). Hide

OHCHR offices allocated small grants to groups of women and human rights NGOs to provide legal aid for victims of domestic violence. OHCHR Colombia financially supported the follow-up to the 2008 Constitutional Court’s order on assistance to female internally displaced persons who are victims; investigations of sexual violence, and prevention of sexual violence; and the reformulation of the Government’s and Attorney General’s Office’s programmes for the protection of victims and witnesses. OHCHR’s Regional Office in Central Asia, based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan funded a 10-month project on legal aid to victims of domestic violence, through the allocation of a small grant to the Association of Crisis Centers of Kyrgyzstan. The Regional Office also funded an NGO project on legal aid to victims of domestic violence in Tajikistan, including awareness-raising among government officials and general public and the opening of a telephone hotline for victims of violence. Hide

OHCHR participated in Northern Uganda and Karamoja in the IASC GBV Sub cluster (Protection), where the IASC clusters were beginning to hand over their work to the Government. In this context, OHCHR Kitgum and Gulu participated in the drafting of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for programmes targeting Gender Based Violence in August 2009. Hide