Search
On occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women - 25 November 2016, UNESCO set up an Orange Zone at Headquarters and conducted a rich social media campaign on the effects of climate change in exacerbating violence against women and girls - a key theme for this year’s campaign on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Throughout the day, badges, informative postcards, posters and UNESCO publications were made available to all staff and visitors. Four visually striking factographs were released, highlighting the links between climate change and violence against women. The campaign disseminated via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram reached over 758,000 people around the world. Broadcasting live from the Orange Zone via Facebook Live, the Director of the Division of Gender Equality discussed the significance of this Day as the UNESCO Globe was lit in orange. The Director also highlighted the importance of raising awareness on violence against women in the context of climate change, noting the myriad of ways in which climate change disproportionately affects women, whether via natural disasters or climate-induced displacement causing heightened sexual trafficking, or the search for water and firewood resulting in increased rapes. Over 1,300 people have watched the video.
In 2014, Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality provided briefings and updates on the Secretary General's UNiTE Campaign during the 13th and 14th annual sessions of the IANWGE as well as inputs from participating agencies for the final report to the Campaign’s High Level Steering Committee.
OHCHR provided technical assistance and capacity-development to states and civil society groups on using a human rights-based approach to address trafficking in persons in Belarus, Thailand and other countries in South East Asia.
As part of the Phase II of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on FGM/C, to strengthen the inter-linkages between VAWG and harmful practices such as FGM/C, and address the root causes of such violence, UN Women has developed is developing policy document on essential elements to end FGM/C as a form of VAWG, in addition to a training module on gender and FGM/C, to accompany the UNFPA-UNICEF Manual on Social Norms and Change.
UN Women with UNIC (United Nations Information Centres) on behalf of the UN System in Cameroon in partnership with the Ministry of Women Empowerment and the Family (MINPROFF) organized the official launching ceremony of 16 days activism within UNSG’s Orange Campaign “UNiTE to End Violence against Women”, on 25 November 2015, on the theme “from peace in the Home to peace in the world, make education safe for all”. The ceremony was presided by the Minister. Discussions centred on efforts made by both the UN and Cameroon to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, with the Minister condemning the use of women and girls as instruments of terrorism in Cameroon and Nigeria by the Boko Haram terrorist group. The UNSG’s message was read by the Acting UN Resident Coordinator, while UNIC Yaounde prepared and distributed information kits comprised of UNSG message, press releases on actions taken by UN to combat this social ill to the media and participants. The ceremony was reported on the UNIC’s website and Facebook page.
In Fiji, Training workshops for Markets for Change Projects (M4C) are held in marketplaces to ensure that marketplaces are gender friendly and safe places for women. The successfully piloted mobile service delivery by Fiji REACH for community education on economic, social and legal rights, in which 1,994 people participated (69% women; 5% children) and provided advisory services to 394 people (75% women) for issues including prevention and support for Sexual and Gender Based Violence.
In Kenya, UNDP has supported the training for 35 senior prison officials on the link between Gender Based Violence and HIV and a seminar for National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) on HIV, GBV, human rights and the law-one of Kenya’s NHRIs has since development a Gender and Diversity Strategy. Furthermore, 121 officials from the peace (district peace committees) and security (National Police, Administrative Police, Directorate of Criminal Investigations) sectors have been trained on SGBV in the context of emergencies through UNDP’s support. These trainings were particularly successful and have led to SGBV being prioritized as a standing agenda item during monthly briefing meetings between the police, peace actors and community leaders.
UNHCR has invested a substantial number of hours conducting training for staff and refugees on SGBV. By the end of 2015, UNHCR trained 228,325 persons of concern, 13,693 partner, government, and UNHCR staff.
In Viet Nam, UN Women supported capacity building to better respond to violence against women by assisting the Judicial Academy, the national judicial training institution. With UN Women’s support, the Judicial Academy now has a training modules which will be used to train prospective judges, prosecutors and lawyers on international standards to address VAW. To accompany the training module, a casebook containing 100 cases of domestic and sexual violence and video clips were finalized after being piloted with lecturers, trainers and practitioners from multiple institutions.