Search

In collaboration with UN Women, the ILO published the Handbook “Addressing violence and harassment against women in the world of work” on March 2019. This manual, launched on the occasion of the annual session of the UN Committee on the Status of Women, provides a glimpse into emerging good practices to address violence and harassment against women in the world of work, by governments, employers and workers and their organizations, and civil society.

During 2019, the ILO has been involved in the Spotlight Projects in Argentina, Zimbabwe and Timor Leste, as well as in the Safe and Fair Project in the ASEAN Region, therefore joining efforts with UN entities and other actors to end violence against women. 

In the framework of the WeEmpower Project, the ILO is elaborating illustrative good practices for businesses and policy makers including covering the topic of violence and harassment (V&H) against women and a guidance note for business on this theme.

The year 2020 is a pivotal year for advancing gender equality worldwide, as the global community takes stock of progress made for women’s rights since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action. This information note explores UN Women's upcoming actions throughout 2020 including its multigenerational campaign: “Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights for an Equal Future”, Generation Equality Forums and Action Coalitions. Generation Equality and 2020 information note from ECA available here.
 

UNHCR continues its commitments to proactively contribute to numerous inter-agency coordination fora and initiatives, such as the Call to Action on Protection from Gender Based Violence in Emergencies and the Gender-based Violence Area of Responsibility (GBVAoR). Likewise, UNHCR is engaged in the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict and the GBV Accountability Framework, to promote system-wide accountability to SGBV.  
UNHCR is also an active member in the IASC Guidelines reference group; different AOR sub-working groups; the Energy in Emergencies Advisory Group and the GBVIMS Steering Committee and sub-working groups, among others.
UNHCR actively and systematically participates in the inter-agency standing committee (IASC) gender reference group (GRG).
UNHCR is involved and co-chairs working groups that align policies and meet minimum standards including the UN SEA Working Group, the High-Level Steering Group and IASC RG2. It has maintained close cooperation with the Office of the Special Coordinator on SEA and the UN Victim’s Rights Advocate. In the last quarter of 2019, UNHCR hosted an investigators conference as the Interim Chair of the CEB Task Force on SH and representing the HC in the current IASC Champion on Protection from SEA and SH.

UNODC is the permanent coordinator and secretariat of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group on Trafficking in Persons (ICAT), established by the General Assembly. The principles of gender equality and the empowerment of women underpin the work of ICAT. For instance, in 2019, ICAT published a brief on the gender dimensions of human trafficking and UNODC coordinated the development of the ICAT submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to support the development of a general recommendation on trafficking in women and girls in the context of global migration. 

UNODC is part of the UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) and has implemented projects funded by the UN Action Multi-Partner Trust Fund.

UNRWA field offices in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank participate regularly in the cluster and sub-clusters related to GBV and PSEA. They also play an active role in inter-agency activities marking the 16 days campaign of activism to end gender-based violence and the “UNiTe to End Violence against Women”.

The United Nations Trust Fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women is a global, multilateral grant-making mechanism that supports efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls. The Trust Fund, which was established in 1996 by the General Assembly in its resolution 50/166, is administered by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) on behalf of the United Nations system. With the strong institutional support of UN Women and its regional, multi-country and country offices, and working closely with the rest of the United Nations system through its inter-agency Programme Advisory Committee, the Trust Fund plays a vital role in driving forward collective efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls.

In Sri Lanka, WFP is working alongside UNFPA and the Government of Sri Lanka through its ‘Change’ Project. The project aims to tackle gender equality and women’s empowerment through improved nutrition, food security, sexual and reproductive health, and access to health services in post-conflict Sri Lanka.

In DPRK, WFP is working alongside the UNCT to develop a 2020 work plan with the UNCT. This includes new elements i.e. ’gender equality score’ and ‘human rights score’ incorporated across themes. 

In DRC, WFP continues to support the Panzi Hospital to support victims of Gender Based Violence. WFP supports through emergency food and nutrition blanket supplementary feeding programme – which includes nutritious filled food to boost recovery to survivors. 

In Malawi, the United Nations Joint Programme on Girls Education (UNJPGE) has aimed to systematically address obstacles faced by adolescent girls and boys and finding solutions that are transforming the reality of communities. The joint programme approach provides a platform for three UN agencies (UNICEF, UNFPA and WFP) to explore integrated approaches and create synergies for impact, putting an emphasis on enjoyment of rights for those vulnerable children, particularly by keeping girls in school. Since the project began in 2014, average school enrolment rates have increased by 31% and 43.5% report a decrease in the number of girls experiencing sexual violence or abuse. WFP is providing homegrown school meals linked to JPGE to more than 169,000 students. Fresh food is bought locally from 12,000 smallholder farmers who also directly benefit from the programme.
In Nepal, advocacy measures were taken on November 25 with a strong voice on Orange the World: Gender Equality to End Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). WFP Nepal Country Office also marked the opening ceremony of the international campaign with a group photo followed by opening remarks from the Country Director, Pippa Bradford and guest speaker Dr. Aruna Uprety, Nutritionist and Women Rights Activist. The country director expressed her serious concern over the global and national figure revealing incidences and situation of women and girls facing gender-based violence. Similarly, Dr Uprety spoke out about “Chhaupadi” a menstrual exclusion as a one of the cultural violence that subjugate and oppress girls and women from far west region in Nepal. In addition, she also highlighted the adverse impact of such practices on women and girls’ health, education and safety.  The office also celebrating the whole 16 days through spreading SGBV messages and videos among staff and concluded the event with powerful story and inspirational message from burn survivor young woman on the closing day of the campaign i.e. December 10. The event was organized with the support of small task force group members representing programme and support function units. 

ESCAP and UN Women co-chair the Asia-Pacific Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (TWG-GEEW), which has formally integrated the Secretary-General’s UNiTE Campaign into the development and implementation of its regional interagency workplan. Under the auspices of the TWG-GEEW, ESCAP and UN Women co-organized the Regional Commemoration for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women under the umbrella of UNiTE and #HearMeToo on 23 November 2018. The Ted-talk style event named E.Quality Talks: My Story of Ending Violence against Women, involved survivors of violence, survivor advocates, women’s movements representatives and women’s human rights defenders. Hearing directly from those who have endured violence, fought against it, or helped to prevent it happening to others added credibility, and helped put ‘a human face’ on facts and statistics that can provoke the public to take action. Feedback for the event was unanimously positive from both storytellers and listeners.

The event was attended by the diplomatic community, civil society organizations and UN staff. At the Regional Commemoration, the #DontTellMeHowToDress exhibition, which is a Thai version of the #MeToo movement, was launched at the UN compound. The exhibition displayed the clothing victims wore at the time of the assault to challenge the misconception around sexual violence. 

From this year's experience, the UNITE Worknig Group learnt that it is very important to provide those who are not usually heard with an opportunity to speak, and platforms to share their messages. 

The OHCHR supported the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women during the first week of CSW63 in March 2019. In particular, support was provided for three side-events:

1. Side-event on 25 years of the mandate and the femicide watch initiative, co-sponsored by the Republic of Croatia;
2. Side-event on the mandate of the SRVAW and CEDAW General Recommendation 35, co-sponsored by Timor-Leste;
3. Side-event on online violence against women and the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, organized jointly with Facebook.

The OHCHR also supported the Special Rapporteur on violence against women in the organization of a working level meeting with the members of the institutional platform of international and regional women’s rights mechanisms created in March 2018.