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As a member of the “Gender is my agenda campaign” (GIMAC), ECA participated in the 13th Pre-Summit African Union Heads of State Consultative Meeting on gender mainstreaming where participants recognized the need to intensify measures in response to the Secretary-General’s campaign “UNiTE to end violence against women”. Hide

A meeting "Stopping the HIV epidemic – young women, girls and HIV in southern Africa. What must be done!" was convened in June 2008 by UNAIDS with the University of Witwatersrand Reproductive Health Research Unit. Three research papers relevant to violence against women were presented: intergenerational sex; sexual violence; and risk perception, knowledge and behaviour. The findings of the meeting were presented at ICASA in December 2008 along with communication material put together by Soul City to engage communities and decision makers. They were published in a special supplement of AIDS that was distributed at ICASA. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported or co-organized a number of meetings, workshops and conferences in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, including: on Security Council resolution 1820 and Peacekeeping (September 2008); on Security Council resolutions 1325 and 1820 with respect to the EU’s Security and Defense Policy missions (October 2008); on cross-border female genital mutilation, with West African First Ladies (October 2008); on trafficking in South Asia for media, lawyers and police; and provided technical support for an Economic Community of West African States summit on trafficking and other trans-border issues (December 2008).UNIFEM supported awareness-raising efforts, including: radio education on violence against indigenous women in the Andean Region; gender-based violence community sensitization in Rwanda, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam; and the 16 Days of activism against gender violence campaign in many countries. Hide

Within the framework of the campaign Stop Raping our Greatest Resources: Power to the Women and Girls of DRC, awareness-raising activities, funds and political commitment to end violence against women and girls in the DRC were implemented from July to December 2008. Awareness raising campaigns in Edo State in Nigeria, have been designed with the support of UNICRI. Hide

A number of stories related to violence against women were posted on the How We Make a Difference section of OHCHR’s home page throughout 2008 and 2009. On International Women’s Day 2008, OHCHR’s home page featured a story on the launch of the Secretary-General’s UNiTE Campaign. The Office also proposed and contributed a story on violence against women to DPI’s 2008 “Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About” web page. Hide

UN-HABITAT and UNIFEM Latin America and Caribbean jointly held a workshop on “Women’s Safety”, in Mexico, in November 2008, to present the training and capacity building programme. UN-Habitat and the NGO “Women in Cities International” launched the evaluation report “Women’s Safety Audits – What Works and Where?. UNIFEM, UN-HABITAT, “Women in Cities International” and “Red Mujer” also organized a session entitled “Women and Safety in Urban Spaces”. Hide

Throughout 2008, UNDP-supported community conversation sessions were organized by village facilitators in Cambodia, in order to promote the communities’ understanding of social and legal issues related to domestic violence. Hide

From its Say NO to Violence against Women Campaign, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, delivered over 5 million signatures, including from Heads of State and Ministers from 60 governments and more than 600 Parliamentarians from over 70 countries to the UN Secretary-General, on 25 November 2008, in support of his Campaign UNiTE to End Violence Against Women. Hide

On 17 November 2008, the Secretary-General appointed Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron as United Nations Messenger of Peace, tasked with promoting efforts to end violence against women. DPI facilitated a press conference in New York to announce the appointment, in which Ms. Theron participated. The event had extensive media coverage. DPI also undertook activities to promote the campaign on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Hide

The World Congress III against Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November 2008, was organized jointly by UNICEF, the Government of Brazil, ECPAT and the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child., resulting in the “Rio de Janeiro Pact to Prevent and Stop Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents”.UNICEF continued to support social mobilization efforts at all levels to change attitudes and behaviour on violence against women and girls, including sexual violence and exploitation, trafficking and female genital mutilation. Hide