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ESCWA, in partnership with UNDP, UNFPA, and UN WOMEN, launched the study on Gender Justice and the Law in the Arab States Region. This study provides a base line assessment of laws and policies affecting the realization of gender equality and the protection of women from violence in the region. The 18 country reports highlight successful legal provisions and identify gaps that countries can target to meet their international obligations and commitments.
ESCWA presented a paper on the “missing links” in research on women’s economic empowerment in Arab States at the conference on “Economic Empowerment of Women and the Promotion of the Values of Peace, Justice and Citizenship” in Oman in December 2018. The paper argues that salient forms of discrimination, such as violence against women, are insufficiently analysed as barriers to women’s economic participation in the region. The paper suggests pathways to better integrate violence against women in the region’s economic research and policy agenda, including through national costings of the economic impact of violence against women.
ESCWA, in partnership with UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, and the National University of Ireland, Galway, is currently developing a model to cost the economic impact of child marriage in the Arab region.
ESCWA, in partnership with the League of Arab States and UN Women, organized a training workshop focused on the “Guidance Note for Comprehensive National-Level Reviews” to support participating member States in the timely preparation of their national-level reviews on progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
ESCWA participated in the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Gender Statistics (IAEG-GS) in the Arab Countries. The meetings brought together experts from the National Statistical Offices, Women Machineries, regional and international experts to review and discuss development of gender statistics for evidence-based policy making. This included: (i) methods for compiling and calculating the Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG5) indicators, and (ii) the final version of the ESCWA Household Survey Questionnaire on Violence against Women.
In October 2018, CEDAW adopted revised reporting guidelines for States parties, which integrate SDGs with a view to ensuring systematic reporting by States parties and collection of data to be used in assessing progress made on the implementation of all SDG targets.On 22 November 2018 to commemorate the International Day on the Elimination of Violence against Women and which, inter alia, “called for strengthened cooperation between independent global and regional mechanisms, as common synergies and efforts to address violence against women under the existing normative framework on human rights, which will contribute to closing gaps in combating and preventing violence against women worldwide” the experts also called for the inclusion of monitoring mechanisms to ensure full implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 5.” (See: https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23921&LangID=Ettp://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22432&LangID=E );
On the occasion of the 16 Days of Advocacy on ending violence against women and International Human Rights Day in December 2018, the OHCHR supported the efforts of the SRVAW who reiterated her call for the establishment of a femicide watch to collect, analyse and review data at the national, regional and global levels.
On the occasion of International Women Human Rights Defenders Day the OHCHR supported the SRVAW, SUMEX and WGDAW, along with other relevant mandates in calling on States “to fulfil their commitment to enable that work, proclaimed almost 20 years ago in the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and reaffirmed five years ago in General Assembly resolution 68/181 on protecting women human rights defenders” https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23943&LangID=E
In 2018, the UN Trust Fund published a technical annex to its Annual Report of 2017, providing an update on the results framework of its strategic plan, 2015–2020. As the first such report to be produced by the UN Trust Fund in its 20-year history, it involved the development of indicators, methods and systems to collect data, including input from, and in consultation with, more than 70 grantee organizations. As a result, the framework has been simplified to include three tiers of result types in order to better reflect which results can be attributed to the secretariat of the UN Trust Fund and which are achieved by the organizations themselves through the Trust Fund grant. A mid-term review of the current Trust Fund’s strategic plan was initiated in 2018, and the report is scheduled to be issued in early 2019.
Following the Sixth Biennial Meeting of States on small arms and light weapons in all its aspects, ODA revised the Programme of Action national reporting template to include for the first time two questions regarding gender considerations in the implementation of the Programme of Action, allowing. Reports are publicly available on the ODA website.
The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) launched a project on measuring illicit trafficking and community security through participatory SDG 16-based indicators and conducted capacity building sessions on the indicators, one of which is violence against women at the community level.
The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) published a study on the criminal use of ammunition and trafficking based on data collected from crime scenes in the Dominican Republic and Peru. The study discussed gender aspects, such as ammunition used in gender-specific crimes, gender of victims of crimes involving ammunition, gender roles in the trafficking of ammunition, and the inclusion of women in criminal investigations involving ammunition.
UNODC, Gender-related killing of women and girls (2018). The study gives an overview of the scope of gender-related killing of women and girls within and outside the family sphere.
UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons (2018). The report shows that most of the victims detected across the world are females; mainly adult women, but also increasingly girls. Conflict situations create increased vulnerabilities for women and girls to become trafficking victims.
Cuba Country Office:
As part of the Inter-agency Gender Group, WFP participated in knowledge sharing workshops on preliminary results of the National Survey on Gender Inequality (led by the Centre for Women Studies of the Cuban Women Federation), which also included analysis on gender-based violence issues. WFP also started to disseminate the results of this survey within the supported agricultural cooperatives.
ESCWA, in partnership with the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University, organized a youth arts competition for the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence 2018. The competition attracted a record number of submissions – almost 200 – from young people from 10 Arab States, who submitted paintings, photos, videos, songs and poems on the theme ‘#HearMeToo’: Speak up against violence against women and girls.” The best submissions were showcased at an event, which also featured a roundtable discussion on arts and activism.
ESCWA engaged with students enrolled in the Fashion Design Programme at the Lebanese American University School of Architecture and Design to create designs for a tote-bag to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism campaign. This activity engaged students and solicited their artistic abilities to produce a bag with a powerful message. As part of the partnership, ESCWA staff also led a discussion on gender-based violence with the students to inspire their work.
ESCWA launched a social media campaign for the 16 Days of Activism campaign. ESCWA created a set of 16 cards presenting key facts about gender-based violence in the Arab region, as well as concrete steps that can be taken by youth and the general public to address it. The cards were shared on ESCWA social media channels in English and Arabic on each of the 16 Days of Activism, as part of a broader social media campaign that also featured videos, polls and other multimedia content.
ESCWA facilitates gender discussion series, open to all members of the community. The following topics have recently been addressed: How cinema and theatre can advance women’s rights; and Protection orders in the Arab region.
ESCWA, in partnership with UN DESA and Simon Fraser University in Canada, hosted the Symposium on Women and Water Security for Peacebuilding in the Arab Region. The objective of the Symposium was to review and advance the emerging water security gender nexus in the Arab region, through the lens of the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
ESCWA partnered with the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University (LAU) to utilize ESCWA publications in the curriculum for an M.A. program in “Interdisciplinary Gender Studies” at LAU. This included ESCWA staff leading interactive discussions with students on subjects such as women’s political participation, violence against women, the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and the regional state of gender justice in the Arab region.
The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, become an International Gender Champion and as such, committed to raise global awareness about the gendered impact of weapons, from small arms and light weapons to weapons of mass destruction.
The High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, published an op-ed on the relationship between gender equality and gun violence against women and girls
The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (UNRCPD) also presented at a regional workshop on Enhancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Northeast Asia, which aimed to address global linkages and synergies between disarmament and Women, Peace and Security efforts, as well as gender aspects and approaches in regional disarmament initiatives.
UNODC promotes the Blue Heart Campaign against Human Trafficking. In the framework of the UNODC Education for Justice Initiative, the Office raised awareness on trafficking in persons through education, working closely with youth and academics to look into key concepts of trafficking and how this affects in particular women and girls, and how education can contribute to crime prevention and promotion of legality and justice. This includes dedicated modules and resources on gender and organized crime, including trafficking in persons. UNODC published an article on gender-responsive approaches in evaluation and programming to better address trafficking in persons (p. 22 ff.)
In Mexico, UNODC supported the development of a videogame called Chuka, which aims to teach children to recognize the most common types of violence against women and girls, and act assertively when facing different representations of such violence.