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UNRWA’s GBV referral system underwent significant expansion by building/consolidating new partnerships and by introducing the referral systems to new regions and areas. This resulted in 1,217 new survivors being detected by frontline staff working in UNRWA’s main programmes (ie. Education, Health, and Relief and Social Services) and 2,0858 survivors accessing services. The services comprised psychological and social support, legal aid, and medical care, and were provided both internally, through UNRWA’s programmes, and externally, via external partners. Hide

During the reporting period, OHCHR, in cooperation with UN Women, convened three validation workshops for the finalization of the Model Protocol for the investigation of femicide in Latin America. The tool aims at strengthening capacities to take gender aspects into account in analyzing the crime scenes and in identifying necessary expert evidence. The Model of Protocol was also presented to the Conference of State Parties to Inter-American Convention on Violence against Women (Belém do Pará Convention) and to the General Assembly of the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMPO). The Human Rights Council, at its June 2013 session, adopted resolution 23/25 which recognized the Model Protocol as a good and promising practice (OP 19). Hide

UNFPA continued to document evidence-based practices to EVAW, including through the development of advocacy briefs such as “Addressing Gender-Based Violence” and “The Role of Data in Addressing Violence against Women and Girls” during the 2013 Commission for the Status of Women. Moreover, UNFPA and the Men Engage Alliance published global advocacy briefs on the role of men and boys in addressing GBV in conflict and on social norms, respectively. In the area of pre-natal sex selection, UNFPA supported the International Center for Research on Women to produce the research study on “Masculinity, Son Preference and Intimate Partner Violence in India” as well as the Research Institute for Development to produce a study entitled “Sex Imbalances at Birth in Armenia: Demographic Evidence and Analysis “on sex-at-birth (SRB) imbalances in Armenia. Hide

WHO, in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Medical Research Council in South Africa, launched the first ever global and regional estimates of the prevalence and the health burden of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence against women. The report was widely covered by the media and underscored the need for addressing violence against women as a women’s health and public health problem, as well as a human rights and development concern. WHO is also conducting a randomized controlled trial of a counseling-empowerment intervention in antenatal care in South Africa. Hide

The UN Trust Fund on EVAW-funded joint programme ‘Multi-Sectoral Gender Based Violence Response at the District Level in Nepal’, the first UN joint programming initiative to address VAW in Nepal, was completed in 2013 and the evaluation concluded that the programme has helped create a forum for different stakeholders to address VAW collectively. Hide

In 38 countries, UN Women contributed to implementation of laws and policies, building capacity and improving coordination to expand access to health, justice, police and shelter services – fundamental responses to hold perpetrators accountable and provide better outcomes for survivors. For example, in the State of Palestine, UN Women contributed to 10 fully functioning Family Protection Units across the West Bank, resulting in a near four-fold increase in the number of women reporting abuse in 2013 over the previous year. In addition, UN Women supported two shelters and one multi-purpose centre for survivors. Hide

UNHCR continued its work, in partnership with with civil society, to ensure a holistic response for survivors of SGBV, including through establishment of safe spaces in centres in Lebanon, which are not specifically created for services provision to SGBV survivors, in order to avoid stigmatization of SGBV survivors seeking support; establishment of “centres d’écoute” for counselling services to SGBV survivors in Mali; establishment of family counselling mechanisms and community protection committees in Yemen to address domestic violence among Somali refugees; training in Burkina Faso for its staff and partners working with camp-based and urban refugees resulting in revisions to the SOP on SGBV in light of the changing situation in the Malian crisis. Hide

UNDP supported the provision and improvement of multi-sectoral services through the establishment of referral systems in Somalia; a UN Trust Fund to End VAW project as well as development of guidelines and training in Serbia; increased access to justice for survivors in Sierra-Leone as well as in Somalia with the expansion of mobile courts to remote areas; enhanced legal aid in LAC, Montenegro, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sri Lanka; capacity development of shelters in Albania; development of minimum standards for SOS hotline services provision and capacity development of service providers in Serbia, as well as support to perpetrators programmes; support to networks of women living with HIV in Cambodia to highlight issues such as forced abortions and sterilizations; a Rapid Assessment of Institutional Readiness to Deliver GBV/HIV Services; and counselling in Madagascar. In India, following the gang rape case in December 2012, UNDP provided technical assistance to the Government to set up a model One Stop Crisis Centre in Delhi and provided global best practices to the Justice Mehra Committee on the issue. Hide

OHCHR in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF, and UNFPA has developed a Technical Guidance on the application of a human rights-based approach to implementation of policies and programmes for the reduction of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity in a variety of contexts and intends to pilot it also in partnership with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Hide

In 2013, the El Salvador Protocol for the Investigation of Feminicide which was developed with the support of OHCHR was adopted by the General Prosecutor Office and has been incorporated into the regular training curriculum of Salvadorian prosecutors. OHCHR organized an expert meeting on victims and witness protection in May 2013 to contribute to the development of a related tool, with a special focus on the protection of victims of sexual and gender-based violence. Hide