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UNHCR's GBV Policy institutionalizes the commitment to strengthening its advocacy and effective partnership with governments, diversifying partnerships with women refugee-led organizations, supporting localization, contributing to the establishment of GVB inter-agency coordination and combatting unequal gender norms that normalize and legitimize violence against women and girls.
Prevention programming and awareness-raising initiatives are implemented by UNHCR's operations with the aim of addressing all aspects of prevention, including through transforming systems and harmful social norms. Models such as SASA!, EMAP (Engaging Men through Accountable Practice) and ZTVA (Zero Tolerance Village Alliance) have been rolled-out in numerous field operations.
UNHCR has global partnerships with Raising Voices and International Rescue Committee with a focus to increase the capacity of staff working on prevention programming.
UNHCR will partner with Voice Amplified to undertake a project focused on mentoring WLOs on assessment design and data collection to conduct their own analysis of the refugee women and girl priorities and perspectives. This will be coupled with a mentoring initiative to increase WLOs access to funding through donor relations and resource mobilization opportunities. Participants will be included in a global knowledge hub to allow for networking and to further sustain their advocacy and funding opportunities beyond the project lifespan.
UNODC supported countries in awareness-raising and advocacy for ending violence against women, including:
UNODC established the GLO.ACT Women's Network of Regional Champions against Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling, composed of female and male gender champions from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.
UNODC supported ICAT events to promote CEDAW General Recommendation 38 and advocate for survivor-centered approaches to address human trafficking and the non-punishment of trafficking victims.
During the course of the Strategic Plan 2016-2020, the UN Trust Fund invested USD47 million in projects that solely or partly focused on preventing violence against women and girls.
To disseminate the expertise and knowledge of civil society and women's rights organizations, the UN Trust Fund worked with grantee organizations and researchers to create a series of briefings on preventing violence against women. The organizations' practice-based insights are invaluable to planning, designing and funding interventions aimed at ending violence against women and girls.
The main objectives of the knowledge products are to:
The findings identified 10 key pathways to prevent violence against women and girls. Each theme will be explored in conversations with 10 grantees, resulting in a detailed report per theme published on a rolling basis in starting July 2021 and 2022.
DPPA addresses the issue of conflict-related sexual violence as part of its overall efforts to ensure that gender relevant issues and perspectives are fully integrated into the Department’s daily work to promote inclusive conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding. This includes operational support, capacity building, gender mainstreaming, and reporting and outreach across the work of DPPA.
ESCWA, in partnership with the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (IADC), has started the implementation of the project titled “Support to Women Refugees from Syria and Vulnerable Women and Girls in Host Communities in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon” (2018-2020). The project seeks to engage women refugees from Syria and vulnerable women and girls in host communities in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon to better advocate for their rights and exercise their voice to improve their status and reinforce their resilience. The two phases of the project in Jordan and Lebanon with women refugees from Syria and host community were completed as planned. Three position papers will be developed to be shared with decision-makers Jordan, Lebanon and Syria on the specific needs of women refugees, including the particular needs for protection from violence.
A number of initiatives were undertaken by UN Women country offices through the support of RO and other partner agencies in undertaking advocacy and awareness on addressing sexual violence in conflict situations.
Through the ICGLR Program support and as part of the Domestication of the Protocol on the Prevention and Punishment of Sexual Violence Against Women and Children in the ICGLR member states, a total of 9 countries out of the 12 ICGLR Member States that have established the special court, special sessions and special procedures as mechanisms to fast track SGBV cases within the region. For example, in 2018 Uganda established a special session as a strategy to clear SGBV case back log and they were able to clear a total of 788 cases surpassing the target of 650 set for one month. Countries that do not have any mechanisms to fast track SGBV cases are Tanzania, Central African Republic and Angola. Sudan however implemented special procedures for cases involving children for the period between 2014- 2016.
UN Women also participated and provided briefing to the HQ DPA high level missions and advocacy initiatives towards developing strategies for addressing PVE, CVE with focus on prevention of sexual violence in conflict situations.
The Strategy for Prevention of and Response to the Conflict Related Sexual Violence in Ukraine
The present strategy provides guidance and recommendations on how governmental institutions of Ukraine, civil society organizations, international organizations and UN system can join efforts to effectively prevent and respond to CRSV. The document has a narrative part, which sets out the general context, mandate and scope of the strategy, implementation mechanism, coordination mechanism and tools. Second part of the document is a roadmap matrix that suggests specific objectives, actions for specific actors to carry out to accomplish those objectives, leading to a more targeted approach. The strategy is currently being developed at the initiative of government of Ukraine, applicable to whole of Ukraine. It is available here.
UNAIDS ensured continued support for implementation of the ‘integration of gender-based violence awareness, prevention and response’ in South Sudan ‘in collaboration with the GBV sub-cluster under the humanitarian response programme (a UNAIDS Secretariat initiative with UNHCR and WFP).
Participation in the Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Arrangements (MARA) on conflict related sexual violence of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict to promote appropriate timely action to prevent and respond to conflict-related sexual violence; inform strategic advocacy; enhance prevention and programmatic responses for survivors; and contribute to the development of comprehensive strategies to combat sexual violence at country-level.
In South Sudan UNAIDS trained police officers with a particular focus on female officers on prevention of GBV and HIV.
UNHCR has issued a Technical Note on UNHCR's Engagement in the Implementation of the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism for grave violations against children in armed conflict, as well as on Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Arrangements on conflict-related sexual violence (it is available here) and is regularly offering webinars with guidance on the technical note.
In resolutions 2331 (2016) and 2388 (2017) on trafficking in persons in conflict situations, the Security Council requested the Secretary-General to increase the capacity of relevant personnel of UN field missions to identify, respond to and report on situations of trafficking in persons. The Security Council has also underlined the need for Member States to combat crimes, such as the smuggling of migrants and related forms of organized crime, in areas affected by armed conflict. In response, UNODC, through its Global Programme against Trafficking in Persons, engaged with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPO) and developed a training module covering trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants, with a strong gender dimension, for the in-mission induction training of United Nations Police Personnel (UNPOL). A tailored version of the training module was piloted with the Multi-dimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and then later integrated into their induction training session for new officers. In addition to training of MINUSMA UNPOL trainers, UNODC supported the delivery of a specialized training to Malian Law enforcement officers in Gao.
In Kosovo (under Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)), Medica Kosova is implementing a small grant from the UN Trust Fund to implement a project whose aim is to protect the legal rights, including property rights, of women who have experienced gender-based violence during and after the armed conflict, and to improve institutional responses to gender-based violence. Medica Kosova is also providing monitoring and advocacy training for women’s organizations and is working with those organizations to identify shortcomings in the implementation of the national strategy against domestic violence. Thus far, the project has assisted 17 survivors of gender-based violence in obtaining legal support and starting the process of registering their properties. Another nine women, who have obtained official status as survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, have expressed an interest in following the legal procedures to register their houses and farms. In addition, 19 women have applied for the status of survivors of conflict related sexual violence and will be enrolled in the reparations scheme that provides them with a monthly lifetime pension.