United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

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

In Venezuela, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported gender-responsive budgeting work that resulted in the earmarking of funds for shelters, in selected municipalities. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, established funds for community-based organizations working to prevent and respond to violence against women in Afghanistan, the Pacific and Haiti.UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, established formal partnerships in preventing violence against women, including MenEngage and Religions for Peace and continued to provide technical and other support in the context of joint United Nations efforts in the Asia-Pacific region, engaging men and boys to prevent violence against women. ESCWA is part of the steering committee of the OXFAM-UNIFEM joint project on “Strategies and approaches of working with men and boys to promote gender equality”. 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

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

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

OSAGI, now part of UN Women, is collaborating with the Council of Europe to prepare a “Joint study on trafficking in organs and tissues, including trafficking in human beings for the purpose of removal of organs”. A second round of consultations with partners was held in October 2008 in Strasbourg. Hide

In collaboration with the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), OSAGI , now part of UN Women, organized a virtual dialogue on best practices in national implementation of resolution 1325, in regard to violence against women in conflict and post-conflict situations. As part of its effort to create an online training course on development of national action plans on resolution 1325 for Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa, OSAGI carried out research and analysis of gender-based violence in the relevant regions. Hide

During the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in 2008, OSAGI, now part of UN Women, and UNFPA organized a panel discussion with the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, which reviewed 15 years (1994-2009) of work of the mandate. OSAGI coordinated the performance of a play, “MIKA”, which highlighted the far-reaching impact of violence against women and which was also performed at United Nations Headquarters in December. Hide

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