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UNODC published “Evidential Issues in Trafficking in Persons Cases – Case Digest ”, a handbook that aims to assist criminal justice practitioners worldwide in addressing recurring evidential issues that are typical to trafficking in persons cases. It has analysed 135 cases from 31 jurisdictions and provides the reader, based on these real cases tried, with a range of options and possibilities to deal with particular evidential challenges.
In 2010, UNODC has received the GA mandate to collect data and report about trafficking in persons’ patterns and flows at national and international levels. This mandate is fulfilled with the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, published every two years. Data is collected according to sex disaggregation and forms of exploitation. Still nowadays, female represent the vast majority of the victims trafficking and sexual exploitation is the most reported form of trafficking worldwide.
UNODC is developing methodologies to monitor SDG indicator 16.2.2, on estimating the number of victims of trafficking by sex, age and forms of exploitation. This indicator is used to monitor SDG targets 16.2 and 5.2 on trafficking in children and women trafficking.
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In 2017, 3 induction/capacity building sessions on GBV tools for around 12 youth-led NGOs active in different areas in Lebanon was organized. The main focus of the induction is Gender Roles & Societal Expectations from both Women and Men in Public and Private Spheres. Furthermore, to support the role of youth-led and women-led organizations, UN Women organized in partnership with ABAAD a GBV/Masculinity TOT training workshop in October 2017 which involved 9 CSOs. The 3 days’ workshop aimed at building the capacities of participating NGOs on the concepts of human security, gender based violence and masculinities and addressing negative coping mechanism. The CSOs were able to utilize their newly acquired knowledge and technical skills while conducting GBV awareness raising sessions within their community to address stigma against GBV survivors and reduce all forms of violence.
The UN Women Gender Specialist secondee to OCHA has been working closely with national and sub-national cluster coordinators, gender focal points and humanitarian funding partners to improve gender outcomes, including conducting training on Gender and Age Marker for 90 participants.
In Algeria, UN Women has reached an important milestone, in strenghtening the Ministry of National Solidarity, Family and Women Condition's (MSNFCF) capacities to collect data on women and girls victims of violence. A modernized and common data collection framework integrating international guidelines and indicators on WSV, with a focus on SDG 5, was developed by UN Women in partnership with the MSNFCF. The new administrative databased named "AMANE" will allow the MSNFCF and its different structures to collect comprehensive data on Survivors seeking aid from its services. All 54 professionals from the Directorates for Social Action and Solidarity (DASS) and from Women Shelter's have benefited from a specific training on how to use AMANE with a component on gender-based violence and gender issues.
As part of UN Women efforts in supporting the Palestinian police to improve the Family Protection and Juvenile Unit (FPJU) performance in dealing with VAW cases, and supporting the implementation of the capacity building plan of the FJPU, a two-day workshop has been conducted in Jan 2018 on cybercrimes against women and girls. 24 police officers from FJPU and the cybercrime unit have been targeted and agreed on recommendations to improve coordination between both units whe dealing with VAW cases. following that, UNW facilitated a meeting between heads of the specialized units of the cyber-crime and VAW, to reflect on the workshops main points and present the findings and recommendations. Both units agreed to discuss internally proposed arrangements, including the assginment of the FJPU as the first responder for the cyber-crime -violence against women and the aspects of coordination mechanisms between the units when dealing with VAW casesto ensure privacy and confidentiality.
UN Women has reinforced and developed partnerships with key departments for the provision of essential services to WSV. Justice professionals (magistrates and legal social workers) were assessed and trained on women’s access to justice and on human trafficking, and benefited from South-South exchanges with their counterparts from Palestine. The training aimed for the magistrates focused on the role of the security services during the investigation phases, the investigation of trafficking cases, and the identification and protection of victims. The dozen magistrates-experts will, following the training cycle, will conduct similar trainings to the rest of the magistrates within the Ministry of Justice thus ensuring national ownership with regards to human trafficking best practices.
UN Women and AWLN held a series of workshops with parliamentarians and legal practitioners on SGBV and women’s access to justice in order to raise awarness of the legal framework, gaps adn challenges, and how to promote services for survivors.
UN Women supported the Jordanian National Commission for Women in strengthening its positioning with female MPs, organizing three capacity building initiatives during the reporting for members of the women’s caucus in the Parliament and adressing issues related to their role in legislative writing, budget design and oversight, implementation of the SDGs, and constituency-building through online outreach. At the margins of one of the sessions, a dedicated session to review the draft cyber crime law was also conducted.
In March 2018, UN Women held two consultation meetings with civil society and government partners in Baghdad (24-26) and Erbil (27-29) to analyze humanitarian response plans from a gender perspective. The meetings also served to build a foundation for improved coordination and communication between government and civil society, resulting in the prioritization of the needs of women and girls.
UN Women Egypt in collaboration with the Office of the Public Prosecution and UNODC organized training workshops for 160 members of the Public Prosecution on how to effectively prosecute crimes related to violence against women. Topics covered included gender sensitive evidence-gathering and investigation, understanding the relevant legal articles in the Penal code and identifying common legal and practical issues faced by women victims/survivors, in addition to the provision of support and protection of survivors. Furthermore, in collaboration with the National Council for Women (NCW), training workshops were conducted for 250 recent law graduates on a career path to becoming judges to elevate their competencies to adjudicate cases related to VAW. Additionally, capacity development support was provided to the Women’s Complaints office of the NCW to strengthen their capacity to provide legal awareness and support services to women victims/survivors of violence, in addition to 80 employees of government-run women’s shelters and the supervisory ministry, to provide protection and support services to women victims/survivors of violence.
Field research and analysis by country research teams in China, India, Indonesia for the research project “When and Why Do States Respond to Women's Claims? Understanding Gender-Egalitarian Policy Change in Asia” (2013-2016; final publications 2018).
http://www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BB128/(httpProjects)/FFDCCF9EE4F2F9C6C1257BEF004FB03E?OpenDocument
Joint research activity with the Unicef Office of Research Innocenti on “Transformative Change for Children and Youth and the SDGs” (2017-2018) includes topic of violence against girls.
UNRWA GBV indicators are a part of the Agency-wide monitoring framework and are reported on periodically.
UNESCO continues to build capacity within the education sector to prevent and respond to school related gender-based violence (SRGBV). Orientation and training workshops on education sector responses to SRGBV, utilizing resources such as the UNESCO/UN Women Global Guidance on Addressing School-Related Gender-Based Violence (English, French), were conducted with education personnel and partners in 2017 in the African region (West and Central Africa and Eastern and Southern Africa), the Caribbean and the Russian Federation. Parallel capacity building to enhance classroom learning on respectful relationships and promote violence-free learning environments, using curriculum tools, was also carried out in the Asia Pacific and Eastern and Southern Africa regions.
Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM): GSIM intends to gauge gender-sensitivity in media operations and editorial content. It is addressed to the media in general (radio, TV and press), and Broadcasting organizations and media associations or unions, and allows them to effectively assess themselves. These evaluations can be done by applying UNESCO's Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM) and serve as a baseline against which policy can subsequently be created, modified or implemented. Their application can therefore open the road to positive change. For instance, representatives from 25 French-speaking national broadcasters from Africa participated from 21 to 24 October 2016 to a training on the application of UNESCO’s Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media. Through this event, the organization sought to strengthen media pluralism and the adoption of gender-sensitive policies in African broadcasting organizations.
Empowering Local Radio with ICTs: UNESCO’s “Empowering Local Radio with ICTs” project strengthens the capacity of local radio staff to help them broadcast quality, relevant and reliable programming. An important component of these workshops is gender-sensitive training, which helps reporters identify and remove harmful biases and stereotypes from their coverage. Sensitivity is essential when covering gender-specific matters to promote healthy and equitable portrayals of men and women in the media and society. This training additionally helps radio stations take stock of and confront gender issues in their community, such as violence against women. As an example from this period, UNESCO gender-sensitivity training of reporters from Radio Ijwi ry’Umukenyezi (Women’s Voice) in Burundi contributed to the creation of a dedicated gender cell in their station. This team investigates gender-related issues, monitors the station’s broadcasts and hosts awareness programs. They specifically advocate positive behaviour among men and women to promote intolerance for violence against women – an activity that has been very well-received in the community.
UNV captures sex-disaggregated data.
There is increasing momentum to address the evidence gap on the impact and effectiveness of volunteerism for sustainable development. The State of the World’s Volunteerism Report (SWVR) is UNV’s flagship publication, produced every 3 years. The SWVR 2018 considers how volunteerism and community resilience interact across diverse contexts. It adds to the evidence on inclusive, citizen-led approaches to resilience building – including from a gender lense. It examines how wider actors can build from communities’ self-organization in a complementary way, nurturing the most beneficial characteristics of volunteerism while mitigating against potential harms to the most vulnerable, including women and girls.
1. Intervention to address VAW in antenatal care setting : WHO and the Wits Institute for Reproductive health have finalised a randomised control trial of an empowerment counselling-based intervention in antenatal care for pregnant women experiencing abuse in Johannesburg, South Africa. The trial found that the intervention was efficacious in reducing IPV, and was acceptable but delivering it would require further efforts.. The findings and intervention training manual will be published in 2018 2. Building on field testing of the WHO clinical handbook for the response to intimate partner violence and sexual violence, WHO is carrying out implementation research to identify effective approaches to roll out WHO clinical guidelines and derivative tools on the health sector response to violence against women. 3. The questionnaire developed for the WHO multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women has been updated and now includes questions on non-partner sexual violence, sexual harassment and updated questions on social norms and mental health. The questionnaire will be published in 2018 along with an accompanying question-by-question manual. 4. WHO updated its database on intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence and established a technical advisory group for the VAW inter-agency working group on estimation and data as part of the UN-wide SDG monitoring efforts
UNODC continues to provide expert assistance through Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT). GLO.ACT assists governmental authorities and civil society organizations across 13 strategically selected countries (Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa, and Ukraine) by supporting effective responses to trafficking and smuggling, including assisting victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants by strengthening identification, referral, and direct support mechanisms. Between July 2016 and December 2017, more than 70 activities were delivered in 11 countries.
UNODC provided training and capacity building to promote more effective police and justice responses to VAW/GBV in Egypt (training for police officers, prosecutors, judges and forensic doctors), (Kenya (training on gender mainstreaming), Kyrgyzstan (leadership training programme for female police officers to promote gender-sensitive local police services), Mexico (training programme for 8,000 police officers and emergency call operators in 25 states), Myanmar (training workshops for police instructors and front-line officers based on a new handbook and training curriculum), Namibia (training of trainers for police, prosecutors and victim service providers).
In 2017, UNRWA carried out 135 trainings which engaged 2709 staff members across the Agency (Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, West Bank, and Syria). Trainings focused on GBV and GBV in emergencies targeted staff in UNRWA’s different programmes.
Several of the research institutes of the United Nations University (UNU) have conducted research projects on EVAW. The UNU World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) has explored the effects of conflict-induced displacement on gender norms in Turkey, finding an increased tolerance towards domestic violence among women who were forced to migrate. Another research project discovered that underlying the preferences of a population effected the impact of legal bans against harmful practices, such as female genital cutting and domestic violence. These papers, among others, will appear in the book “Towards Gender Equity in Development” to be published in October 2018. The UNU Computing and Society (UNU-CS) has undertaken research to understand the potential of ICT on efforts to end VAW, including forced labor and sexual exploitation in the context of migration, and cyber harassment. The research develops practical and policy tools to support victims and survivors, and to assist advocacy and policymaking institutions. The UNU Centre for Policy Research (UNU-CPR) has conducted research on states’ leniency and accountability measures toward individuals accused of association with jihadist groups. The project considers, inter alia: the roles women and girls play in association with jihadist groups; the sometimes coercive conditions under which they may develop associations; and the extent to which female relatives of men connected with jihadist groups are penalised for their indirect association.