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ESCWA, in partnership with UN Women, ABAAD Resource Centre for Gender Equality and the Lebanese American University, has commemorated the 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence campaign (25th November-10th December 2016) and organised a series of awareness raising activities. These include a video competition among the youth in the Arab region to send a message on 'how to stop violence against women', a panel discussion with experts and CSOs on estimating the cost of VAW, and a public event to promote civil engagement on the topic.
The UN Women Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), hosted the meeting “Preventing and Responding to Violence Against Women and Girls in Latin-America and the Caribbean: Lessons learned across the globe”, which was held in Panama City from December 5 to 7 of 2016. This event provided a unique space, bringing together several UN agencies, government officials, diplomats, civil society organizations, global researchers and other experts in the field of preventing and responding to violence against women and girls to exchange experiences and explore ways to implement effective and promising practices to address violence against women. This approach sought to drive change in the region, which has been characterized by the lack of evidence-based interventions and rigorous evaluations. A total of 25 countries were represented in this meeting and UN women key guidance documents such as the UN prevention Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls as well as the Essential services guidelines were disseminated.
UN Women collaborated with UNESCO to develop a guidance toolkit on prevention of and response to violence against women and girls in the educational sector: “Global Guidance on School-related Gender-based violence” in December 2016 (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002466/246651E.pdf). UN Women continues its collaboration with UNESCO to develop similar toolkits to engage the media and sporting organizations in prevention of and response to VAW. These technical documents provide key information to governments, policy-makers, practitioners and civil society who wish to take concrete action against violence against women and girls. It introduces approaches, methodologies, tools and resources that have shown positive results.
In May 2016, WHO published guidelines for management of the health consequences of female genital mutilation.
UN Women developed costing frameworks that provide the foundation for understanding the resources needed for comprehensive support services for survivors of violence. These frameworks were developed in Lao PDR, Indonesia and Timor-Leste.
In Viet Nam in 2015, UN Women provided technical support to the Ministry of Education and Training to develop a circular that will provide guidance to schools nationwide to introduce counseling services to help students deal with issues such as school-related gender based violence (SRGBV) and difficulties in gender relations. This is in response to growing evidence that SRGBV, especially cyber harassment has become common and increasingly complicated recently. The circular is currently being reviewed by the Government and is expected to be approved by the Prime Minister in August 2016.
OHCHR’s support to Papua New Guinea led to the development of a national action plan and the establishment of a committee to address violence related to accusations of sorcery and witchcraft. OHCHR also supported policy development in cases of gender-based violence and rape.
OHCHR supported the Special Rapporteur on violence against women in producing legal and policy recommendations through the country visit reports: United Kingdom—2014 (A/HRC/29/27/Add.2); Honduras—2014 (A/HRC/29/27/Add.1); Afghanistan—2014 (A/HRC/29/27/Add.3) ; Sudan—2015; South Africa—2015; (6) Georgia—2016.
In 2014, UNICEF developed a multi-year initiative with national authorities and the travel and tourism sector to support policy measures to prevent child sexual exploitation among adolescent boys and girls living in poverty. This resulted in improved local capacity to protect victims and prosecute crimes. UNICEF continues to invest in advancing girls’ education in communities at risk or in remote areas. Since 2014, UNICEF’s investment in the #EndViolence Against Children Initiative led to increased global consciousness in more than 50 countries and triggered a grass-roots movement prompting action across the world.
In Kyrgyzstan, UNODC recommendations on gender policy were incorporated in the endorsed national Action Plan on implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, including a mentoring plan for women in law enforcement and establishing a roster for women in senior management positions.