United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

In Asia Pacific, the Partners for Prevention (P4P) - an inter-agency initiative of UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, and UNVs- which works with men and boys to prevent gender-based violence– has developed a comprehensive set of research tools on gender-based violence, including questionnaires, research protocols, and training manuals for the “Gender-based Violence Prevention and Masculinities” Collaborative Research Project for Asia and the Pacific. These tools have been shared with partners in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. In Cambodia, the research findings on GBV and masculinities are informing a public awareness campaign. P4P is also developing the capacity of national partners in China, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea to conduct research in this area, in order to develop evidence-based programs and policy initiatives to address GBV across the region. Networks of practitioners have been established in South Asia and Southeast & East Asia to support the civil society and UN advocates to implement initiatives on GBV prevention through work with men and boys. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, continued to update the Secretary-General’s database on violence against women. During the ECOSOC High-level segment that took place from 28 June to 2 July 2010, DAW organized a parallel exhibition featuring the Secretary-General’s database on violence against women. Hide

Through its ongoing work with parliamentarians, women’s machineries and the women’s movement, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, continued to support efforts for legislative reforms including a law on domestic violence in Timor-Leste. Hide

Issues # 7 and 8 of Words to Action, DAW’s (now part of UN Women) quarterly newsletter on violence against women, were issued, with feature articles on the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, and the 15 year review of the implementation of the Platform for Action. Hide

The Handbook for legislation on violence against women (UNDAW/DESA, 2010) was published and its final version is available on the website of DAW, now part of UN Women, https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-handbook.htm. Copies of the Handbook are available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish. DAW and the Centre for Women at the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), held a sub-regional capacity-building workshop in Beirut, Lebanon on legislative frameworks to address violence against women for Government officials, Parliamentarians and representatives of non-governmental organizations from 7 countries in the Middle East. The objective of the workshop was to contribute to the adoption of comprehensive legislation on violence against women and its effective implementation. Hide

Through a gender-based violence Coordination mechanism established by UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, and GIZ in 2010, Cambodia has been at the forefront of joint advocacy and behavioral change initiatives. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, now part of UN Women, prepared reports of the Secretary General to the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women (A/65/208), and trafficking in women and girls (A/65/209).On 11 March 2010, the Commission on the Status of Women held an interactive panel discussion on the theme “Unite to End Violence against Women”. A Moderator’s summary of the panel is available on the DAW website at: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing15/ievents.html. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UNODC, to implement trafficking programmes in South Asia. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, contributed to improved policies and service delivery for women survivors of violence, through its work with National Women’s Machineries, including in Ghana, Liberia and Peru; increased access to legal assistance in Ethiopia, Fiji and the Occupied Palestinian territory (oPt); and strengthened police response in Nigeria. UNIFEM deployed teams in post-earthquake settlements in Haiti to provide referrals for survivors of violence. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, released Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice, developed with DPKO as part of UN Action and supported emergency efforts in Kyrgyzstan related to gender-based violence. Hide