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A new Report on “The Impacts of the Crisis on Gender Equality and Women’s Wellbeing in European Union (EU) Mediterranean Countries” was prepared by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) with the involvement of researchers from France, Greece, Italy and Spain. The report included the findings of the gendered impact of the crisis and its consequences for women in the EU Mediterranean Basin. This study intended to address the gap in the research about gendered impacts of the economic crisis at national and regional levels and to contribute to the Post-2015 development framework.
The report was based on economic indicators of gender equality and focuses on domestic violence, discrimination, access to justice and welfare services, and covered the four countries from the Mediterranean Basin: France, Spain, Italy and Greece. These countries were chosen because of their similar population numbers and location, in the effort of gathering comparable data. Coping responses of the countries respective governments were analysed from a gender perspective. This new Report provided insights on the impact of economic downturn on women’s well-being and to support the future strategy for promoting women’s rights and gender equality, with a view of attaining the MDGs for 2015. It explored possible strategies, which can help to minimize risks and alleviate vulnerable situations. The presentation of the report, attended by Permanent Representatives of the EU and outside EU countries to the United Nations and representatives of the United Nations Institutions based in Geneva, was launched at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on 18 September 2014.
UN Women participates as observer in the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators, and it has influenced the selection and definition of EVAW related SDG target indicators, more specifically target 5.2 indicators. It has led and worked with other UN agencies to develop the metadata for the two indicators to monitor progress of this target. UN Women also convened a meeting with other UN agencies working on VAW data and it is coordinating the development of a UN global joint programme to build sustained national capacities to implement VAW prevalence surveys in line with international standards and SDG monitoring requirements. This work is part of the Flagship Programme Initiative “Better production and use of gender statistics for evidence-based localization of the SDGs”.
Within the framework of UN Secretary-General’s campaign “UNiTE to End Violence against Women”, UNIC (United Nations Information Centres) Beirut, Lebanon in partnership with the Theatre Club at the Balamand University in Lebanon produced a theatre play on the issue of violence against women targeting school students - a work that was fully supported and sponsored by the Lebanese Minister of Education and Higher Education. The play, entitled “We Are All Humans”, presented real cases of violence against women within families in Lebanon through a vibrant script and a combination of gestures, songs, music and dance performed by university students. It tackles the hereditary violence against women and sheds light on physical and moral violence practiced directly or indirectly against girls in society. UNIC took part in the script drafting and the directing process to reflect the real objectives of the UNiTE campaign aiming to prevent all forms of violence against women and girls and eliminate this scourge.
In 2016, ESCWA started to develop a study entitled “Status on Arab Women Report - Violence against Women: A Costly Bill”. This study is mandated by various international legal and policy frameworks, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, with a particular focus on the integrated measures to prevent and eliminate Violence against Women. Besides, the study is aligned to the SDGs and particularly Goal 5 on gender equality and the empowerment of women, which sheds light on combatting violence against women as a key factor to achieve the goal. Finally, this study is mandated by the recommendations emanating from the 7th session on the Committee on Women held in January 2016, which requested ESCWA to “estimate the economic cost of violence and provide Member States with a model to be issued for this purpose”.
UNHCR is a founding member of the Gender-Based Violence Information Management System and sits on its Steering Committee along with UNFPA, IRC, IMC and UNICEF. UNHCR is working to strengthen and harmonize data collection on SGBV by implementing the GBVIMS in selected operations. In 2015, UNHCR provided technical support in data collection and analysis to 22 countries.
The UNDP Regional Hub for Arab States has commissioned a comprehensive assessment on how GBV protection services are being addressed through legislation, practices and their implementation. The study is to be used to inform effective gender justice programming to combat GBV in the Arab States Region especially in the justice and security sectors. The analysis will also support country and regional advocacy efforts to advocate for the reform of laws, policies and practices that respect and uphold women’s rights.
In March 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women (UNiTE) launched its call to action for the 16 Days of Activism, ‘Orange the World: End Violence against Women and Girls’. The theme of prevention of violence against women and girls was selected as a focus to provide opportunities to highlight the need for greater investment in ending violence against women and girls at global, regional and country level in the particular context of the new SDG framework with a focus on prevention as a long term solution.
UNODC launched the Global Study on Homicide, focusing on intimate personal homicide and in particular analysis of women as victims, as part of the broader issue of violence against women. Similarly, the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons presents data and analyses on this crime and its impact on women and girls. Information gathered from about 130 countries around the world shows that globally 70% of victims are females (50% adult women and 20% girls). A new edition will be published in late 2016.
UN Women Multi-Country Office in Barbados has provided support to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to develop and adopt a model for conducting national prevalence surveys on violence against women in the region. The model is currently being piloted in Jamaica, where prevalence data are expected to be available in late 2016-early 2017, and will be later implemented in other countries in the region. In Kazakhstan, UN Women supported the Committee of Statistics to conduct the first specialized national survey on the prevalence of domestic violence, through provision of expert's support to conduct a series of trainings for implementing the survey.
Referral systems in place in each of the five fields allow the Agency to collect non-identifiable data on GBV trends, including perpetrators, types of violence and services needed and accessed. Data collected allows the Agency to monitor progress and measure impact of the various interventions as well as informs the planning and implementation of future activities by building on lessons learnt, best practices and bringing together different experiences from all the fields of operation.