Search

In June 2011, the International Labour Conference adopted the Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The new standards are a strong recognition of the economic and social value of domestic work and a call for action to address the existing exclusions of domestic workers from labour and social protection. Article 5 of Convention No. 189 calls for measures to ensure that domestic workers enjoy effective protection against all forms of abuse, harassment and violence. Hide

The OHCHR office in Brussels, together with the UN Country Team, actively participated in the elaboration and adoption of the European Union (EU) Directive on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protecting Its Victims. A commentary on implementing the Directive has been developed and submitted to the EU. This Commentary is aimed at assisting EU countries in interpreting the Directives in a more human rights-based approach. UNICEF also contributed to the Joint UN Commentary on EU Directive.OHCHR continued to promote the Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Human Trafficking through the organization of regional launchings of the Commentary of the Recommended Principles and Guidelines published at the beginning of 2011 with capacity building activities in Moldova (November 2011) and in the United Arab Emirates (December 2011). The Commentary is an in-depth analysis of the legal and policy frameworks on trafficking.The Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice of the Human Rights Council was appointed in March 2011 and assumed its functions on 1 May 2011. During the reporting period, the Working Group held two sessions in Geneva, decided its working methods and thematic priorities. These relate to women’s right to equality in participating in public and political life including at times of political transitions (2012) and women’s right to equality in participating in economic and social life including at times of economic crisis (2013).More information can be found at:http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WGWomen/Pages/WGWomenIndex.aspx Hide

In December 2011, UNHCR organized a ministerial meeting marking the 60th anniversary year of the Refugee Convention, during which a number of states made pledges related to the implementation of the Refugee and Statelessness Conventions, including on eliminating sexual and gender-based violence and gender discrimination in nationality legislation. Hide

UN Women prepared reports of the Secretary General to the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly on Violence against women migrant workers (A/66/212) and on the Girl-child (A/66/257); as well as a report of the Secretary General to the fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on Ending female genital mutilation (E/CN.6/2012/8). UNICEF provided technical inputs to both reports. Hide

OHCHR submitted two reports to the Human Rights Council’s 17th session (June 2011), respectively on the expert workshop on challenges, good practices and opportunities in the elimination of all forms of violence against women (A/HRC/17/22), and a Compilation of good practices in efforts aimed at preventing violence against women (A/HRC/17/23).OHCHR supported the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences in developing and presenting a thematic report on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination (A/HRC/17/26) which proposes a holistic approach to addressing the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that contribute to and exacerbate violence against women. The Special Rapporteur also submitted her reports to the Human Rights Council on missions undertaken to El Salvador, Algeria, Zambia and the United States. OHCHR further supported the Special Rapporteur in convening a side event on regional standards and violence against women during the seventeenth session of the Human Rights Council in June 2011. The objective of this event, which brought together representatives of regional human rights mechanisms from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Inter-American region, was to analyse the different provisions on violence against women elaborated in the regional human rights instruments and relevant jurisprudence developed by the regional mechanisms. Hide

The UNAIDS Secretariat provided comprehensive support for the 2011 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AIDS. The resulting Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS: Intensifying our Efforts to Eliminate HIV/AIDS highlights the need to eliminate violence against women. Hide

Based on the outcome of a 2010 expert group meeting, organized by UN Women, in cooperation with ECLAC/Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean. UN Women developed and issued in June 2011 a Handbook for national action plans on violence against women. The Handbook presents a model framework for national action plans on violence against women, which sets out detailed recommendations, accompanied by explanatory commentaries and good practice examples. The Handbook is available at: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/handbook-for-nap-on-vaw.htm. The Handbook will be available in hard copy in 2012 in all official United Nations languages. Hide

In November 2011, based on the recommendations of “The UNAIDS Action for Results: Outcomes Framework 2009-2011”, a multi-stakeholder meeting was held in Istanbul. UNFPA, in collaboration with UNDP, UNWOMEN, WHO, UNICEF, UNHCR and the MenEngage Alliance (Sonke Gender Justice and the Athena Network) and in close collaboration with the Interagency Working Group on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV, will support select pilot countries for roll-out of policy development work in 2012 as identified in the Istanbul meeting. Hide

In October 2011, UNFPA held the global meeting in Viet Nam on “Skewed sex ratios and why we care the way forward” in collaboration with the Viet Nam UNCT and the Government of Viet Nam with the objectives of: 1) taking stock of emerging trends/state of the art relating to new geographical pockets of skewed sex ratios and subsequently determining strategies for south-south cooperation, especially since some countries, like in the Caucasus, are demonstrating an emerging trend in terms of an imbalanced sex ratio at birth and since other countries like Viet Nam and India have demonstrated some good practices in working with national counterparts to address the issue; and 2) sharing UNFPA and other stakeholders’ experiences on policy development and programming on this issue. Hide

The first Violence Against Women Strategy in the Arab Region was developed in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) with technical support of UN Women to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. The VAW Strategy was endorsed by the Palestinian Cabinet at the beginning of 2011. Technical Committees (five in the West Bank and four in the Gaza Strip), composed of government organizations and non-government organizations working on VAW and human rights, private sector and UNRWA, were formed for the elaboration of the action plan. Hide