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''We Men, stand for Gender Equality'' is a movement started in Nov 2015 by a group of men employees in WFP pledging their support for gender equality and ending violence against women and girls. By March 2016, over 200 men within the Organisation joined the movement, hence over 1% of the total of staff worldwide.
In March 2016 a webinar on Protection from Gender-based Violence in Food Security and Nutrition interventions was delivered, available to all staff, as part of the roll-out of the new corporate guidelines. Tailored guidance will be provided to staff working on projects in decentralized offices during 2016 and 2017.
With the Sustainable Development Agenda committed to ending all forms of violence against women and girls, UN Women has led an initiative involving six other UN entities to create the Framework to Underpin Action to Prevent Violence against Women. It maps evidence-based and emerging practices in preventing violence, with a focus on addressing root causes, risk and protective factors.
UN Women, in collaboration with UNFPA and the Turkish Government, held a Global Meeting on “Ending Violence against Women: Building on Progress to Accelerate Change” in December 2015 in Istanbul, Turkey, at which over 150 high-level representatives from over 40 Member States, the Council of Europe, civil society and United Nations entities attended. At the meeting, participants exchanged experiences and renewed their committment to ending violence against women, such as strengthening Government mechanisms for the prevention of and responses to VAW; implementing comprehensive national programmes and involving men and boys as part of the solution.
A global conference in New Delhi in 2015 brought together over 140 participants from 24 countries. Based on accumulating experiences and evidence-based strategies, they agreed on a series of recommendations, such as to include gender across all public safety and public transport policies, to broaden women’s access to technology as part of comprehensive approaches to prevent violence in public spaces, and to strengthen programmes with youth, schools and media that promote changes in attitudes and behaviours among men and boys.
In Mexico, UN Women and eleven other UN agencies launched a campaign against early and child marriage, to establish eighteen as the minimum age for marriage at federal and state level without exception. The Mexican Senate and the Congress of Oaxaca announced reforms on the issue, while the President pledged to support the campaign and eradicate early marriage in law and practice.
UN Women’s Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Global Flagship Initiative has helped Quezon City, in the Philippines, take the first step in its safe city programme towards ensuring safe streets: a scoping study that collects information on violence against women and girls in public spaces. The study, drawing in part on the use of safety audits, where women and men, girls and boys walk through neighbourhoods to identify safe and unsafe spaces, revealed a number of issues that had long remained unnoticed, such as insufficient legal protection and fear of retaliation from reporting crimes. Quezon City is just one of 23 cities around the world working with UN Women, local governments, women's rights organizations and other partners to prevent and respond to sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces. They include New Delhi, Rabat, New York, Kigali, and Port Moresby, and since 2015 also Medellin, and Brussels.
A project funded by the UN Trust Fund and implemented by Plan Viet Nam is working to address gender-based violence in and around schools, one of the main barriers to girls’ empowerment and gender equality. A research-based model piloted in 20 schools across Hanoi reached approximately 30,000 adolescent girls and boys aged 11 to 18. Following the model’s success, the Hanoi Department of Education has undertaken to replicate the initiative across 766 schools in the city, potentially reaching more than 500,000 adolescents.
In 2014-2015, OHCHR continued supporting the mandate of the Rapporteur on violence against women, in its active engagement with civil society organizations, including through participation in regional consultations. She participated in three regional consultations, held in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, on the topic of “closing the normative gap” in addressing violence against women at the international level.
As part of activities marking the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence in Nigeria, UNIC (United Nations Information Centres) in collaboration with International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) and West African Women Association (WAWA) organized a seminar to explore the legal frameworks in support of women's rights. The seminar identified and addressed the causes of violence against women and the need to speak out, network and raise awareness. Over 120 participants of whom over 100 were women, attended the seminar held at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Secretariat, Lagos Liaison Office in Nigeria.