United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

DAW, now part of UN Women, prepared reports of the Secretary-General to the sixty-second session of the General Assembly on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women (A/62/201) and violence against women migrant workers (A/62/177); as well as reports of the Secretary-General to the fifty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women on ending female genital mutilation (E/CN.6/2008/3) and forced marriage of the girl child (E/CN.6/2008/4).In follow–up to General Assembly resolution 61/143, DAW, in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) and the United Nations Statistics Division, organized an expert group meeting on “Indicators to measure violence against women”, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2007. DAW and UNSD are supporting a joint dialogue of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Statistical Commission, on 28 February 2008, to discuss the outcomes and proposed indicators of the expert group meeting. DAW has initiated work for the development of a coordinated database on violence against women, as requested by the General Assembly (A/RES/61/143, para. 19). Hide

The UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, Goodwill Ambassador launched a global internet-based campaign (www.sayNOtoviolence.org) in consultation with UN sister agencies, NGOs and private sector. UNIFEM is a founding member of and hosts the Secretariat for the UN Action to End Sexual Violence in Conflict Situations. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) and Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) to establish a gender working group in the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Investigation section. WFP supported the establishment of two Gender Desks in the National Police and in the Ministry of Defence, in Rwanda. The primary task of these units is to assist Concerned National Institutions and other stakeholders to address issues related to gender-based violence. Hide

In Grenada, St. Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, is supporting implementation of a court-based batterer intervention programme. Hide

In August 2007, INSTRAW, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), hosted an expert workshop on gender and security sector reform, which brought together a number of experts in different areas of the security sector (police, military, border management, private security companies, etc.) to discuss issues such as gender training, gender mainstreaming, and an appropriate response to physical and sexual violence against women. Hide

In 2007, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, launched a six-country programme designed to build community capacity to prevent sexual and gender-based violence and to build peace in post-conflict countries in Afghanistan, Haiti, Liberia, Rwanda, Timor Leste and Uganda. In Southeast Asia and the Pacific, as elsewhere, UNIFEM, as part of joint UN efforts, supported campaign efforts on ending violence against women. Hide

In partnership with Gender Links, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in its capacity as Chair of the Southern African Gender and Human Rights Advisory Group, promoted the development of score-cards to measure progress in ending violence against women in the context of the SADCC Gender and Development Protocol. Hide

In China, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, support to the Xuzhou Domestic Violence Shelter is being considered for nation-wide scale-up by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Hide

In Rwanda, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the training of over 2,000 defence force members and local leaders and support was provided to the national police in drafting training manuals for investigating sexual and gender-based violence. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, facilitates the strengthening of knowledge bases by supporting efforts to improve the generation and use of data, including through supporting research studies and the creation of databases on violence against women, to build more effective institutions and improve the access of women survivors to services. Hide