Measures

DAW, now part of UN Women, worked to finalize the development of the Secretary-General’s database on violence against women and the website for the database, as well as to coordinate the launch of the database. It also followed up with Member States in order to obtain further responses to the questionnaire for inclusion in the database. DAW followed up with Member States in order to obtain further responses to the questionnaire for inclusion in the database. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in partnership with various national government, bi-lateral government (donor), non-governmental and United Nations partners, supported legal aid to women survivors in the North of Uganda; training for Rwandan women survivors on handicraft, health and financial skills; the establishment of two referral centres in Afghanistan; efforts addressing post-election rape, including the development of guidelines to prepare women’s court testimonies in Kenya. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, provided support to civil society and women’s organizations for initiatives including community-based Multi-purpose Centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo; HIV/AIDS and violence counselling protocols in Peru. Hide

OSAGI, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNIDO, UNICEF and UNDP, participates in the organization and support of the “International Colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security”, scheduled to take place in Monrovia, in Liberia, from 7 to 8 March 2009. OSAGI provided substantive contributions to the consultations organized by Member States and United Nations entities on the situation in Democratic Republic of Congo regarding the increase of sexual violence. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, continued to promote and disseminate the ‘Model Framework for Legislation on Violence against Women’, including through presentations at: UNICEF’s Expert Consultation on ‘Legislative Reform to Achieve Human Rights’, held in New York, in November 2008; the Third Conference for Members of Parliamentary Committees on the Status of Women and other Committees Dealing with Gender Equality, convened by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva, in December 2008, on ‘A parliamentary response to violence against women’; the OSCE Experts’ Seminar on ‘Innovative Approaches to Combating Violence against Women’, held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in October 2008; and a round table discussion on domestic violence legislation in Tajikistan, held at the United Nations Office in Tajikistan in October 2008. Hide

OSAGI, now part of UN Women, continued to work on developing a common set of indicators for monitoring the implementation of resolution 1325 at the international and national levels, and participated in consultations with key United Nations system entities on the development of indicators on gender-based and sexual violence. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the financing of domestic violence courts with senior African judges and, gender-responsive budgeting work that resulted in the earmarking of funds for gender-justice courts and women's prisons in Venezuela. Hide

Issue # 2 of Words to Action, DAW’s (now part of UN Women) quarterly newsletter on violence against women, was produced with a feature article on legislation. Hide

The results of the 2008 grant cycle were announced on 25 November 2008, at an event with the Secretary-General and UNIFEM’s (now part of UN Women) Goodwill Ambassador, Ms. Nicole Kidman. A total of US$22 million in grants were approved, reflecting both multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder interventions. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, provided support to national surveys on gender-based violence in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Uganda, as well as the second iteration of the Cambodian Gender Assessment, including in regard to violence against women. Hide