Search

UNICEF facilitates the establishment of partnerships with governments and non-governmental organizations, and places emphasis on the development of national action plans on gender-based violence.

In July 2007, ESCAP held an expert group meeting for senior law-making officials and national machineries for women to review the concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and integration of the Convention in domestic law. The meeting focused, as one major issue, on strategies for policy reform in the area of violence against women, including on such issues as recognition of marital rape, mechanisms to enforce existing laws - particularly on domestic violence, and personal or religious law that condones violence against women. As part of ESCAP project to build the capacity of the Pacific Islands to adopt and implement the Stockholm Agenda for Action and the Yokohama Commitments to Combat Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children and Youth, a Regional Stakeholders’ Consultation and Planning Workshop for government officials and NGOs was held. The workshop was based on situational analysis studies on the commercial sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children in the Pacific and it also addressed violence and abuse of girls and adolescents. The meeting, on 19-21 November 2007 in Suva, Fiji, was co-organized with ECPAT International and Save the Children Fiji.

IOM signed an agreement with the Colombian Ministry of Justice in order to provide technical assistance and support in the de-centralization of the national strategic plan.

In collaboration with leading experts at the London School of Tropical Medicine, UNAIDS together with WHO and the Global coalition on women and AIDS developed costing estimates for integrating programmes that address violence against women into national AIDS programmes. Interventions on violence against women were included in the 2007 UNAIDS “Financial Resources Required to Achieve Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support”. The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS has actively provided technical and financial support to regional coalitions of women leaders. The Regional Coalition of First Ladies and Women Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean Coalition of Women Leaders are working with networks of women living with HIV in putting forward action plans and advocacy campaigns to address gender-based violence.

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in partnership with national counterparts, ministries, civil society and UN sister agencies, provided support for the development of national strategies and plans in Albania, Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Kazakhstan and Slovakia. Under the UNIFEM-supported Safe Cities Programme in the Southern Cone of Latin America, a protocol is under development to guide the Urban Municipal Guard in Rosario, Argentina, in responding to gender-based violence, which is stimulating policy reforms in Santa Clara, Chile, and lessons are being shared with local authorities in Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.

Research carried out on domestic violence, with UNDP support, has contributed to policy development and promotion of women’s human rights in Mexico, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Jamaica, Croatia, and Belarus. In Jamaica, the findings of a research on gender-based violence were fed into the development of a national action plan, including the identification of school based initiatives and the role of the family to address gender-based violence.

UNODA developed internal guidance on the inclusion of arms control components in national action plans (NAPs) on Women Peace and Security, and The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific (UNRCPD) provided support to the revision process of Nepal’s NAP which included sexual violence and violence against women. 

UNODC continues to support OHCHR and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in its work to develop a General Recommendation on the trafficking of women and girls in the context of global migration. As part of this, UNODC co-hosted a regional consultation for Middle East and Northern Africa in cooperation with OHCHR and UN Women in Egypt in November 2019.

In Bolivia, in cooperation with UNDP, UNODC updated the Protocol to Conduct Hearings on Precautionary Measures. In the first seminar on gender-based violence and femicide, UNODC presented ways of measuring gender-based killings of women and girls. 

In Guatemala, UNODC’s support to the National Civil Police under the joint UN Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence, resulted in a specialised criminal investigation model and protocol for violence against women cases.

In four regions of Argentina, a project led by the organization FUSA para la Salud Integral con Perspectiva de Género y Derechos Asociación Civil, funded by the UN Trust Fund, has formed an interdisciplinary workgroup to develop policy proposals and strategies to change local laws and policies on violence against women and girls with disabilities so that they adhere to international human rights standards. The organizers of the project are also engaging with and providing training for organizations that advocate for the rights of people with disabilities; thus far, 24 women and girls from such organizations have received training on the rights of women and girls with disabilities and acquired the tools necessary to share what they have learned with a wider audience. Preliminary agreements have been reached with health centres to expand the services they offer, and revised protocols are being reviewed by the ethics committees of those health centres.

The upcoming SGBV Policy complements the Age, Gender and Diversity (AGD) Policy (UNHCR March 2018), as a concrete measure to help accelerate progress on Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5. The Policy outlines 10 core actions that UNHCR will take to apply an AGD approach in its work, including reaffirming UNHCR’s five Commitments to Refugee Women: 1) ensuring women and girls participate equally and meaningfully in all decision-making, community management and leadership structures, and committees of persons of concern, 2) are provided with individual registration and documentation, 3) have equal access to and control over management and provision of food, core-relief items, and cash-based interventions, 4) have equal access to economic opportunities, including decent work and quality education and health services and 5) have access to comprehensive SGBV prevention and response services. 
UNHCR is involved in the development process of the implementing partner (IP) common assessment tool to ensure IPs meet minimum standards of the UN Protocol on SEA and has made progress on policy alignment to ensure a victim-centered approach guides actions and processes. UNHCR is engaged and provided substantive feedback which fed into the updated IASC Principal 4.