United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

61 countries and the European Union joined UN Women’s COMMIT to End Violence against Women initiative, a call for action for Governments to make new and concrete national commitments to end violence against women and girls. The commitments ranged from passing or improving laws, ratifying international conventions, to launching public awareness campaigns, providing safe houses or free hotline services and free legal aid to survivors, supporting education programmes that address gender stereotypes and violence, and increasing women in law enforcement, peacekeeping forces and frontline services. Hide

The publication of a new methodology and a regional UN Women publication on VAW costing cemented UN Women’s technical leadership in this emerging area of research in the Asia Pacific region and have contributed to the decision by seven governments in the region to undertake new or additional VAW costing studies. Hide

In October 2013, UN Women launched Voices against Violence, a pioneering co-educational and non-formal education curriculum on ending violence against women and girls, designed for various age groups ranging from 5 to 25 years, in partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It provides girls, boys, young women and young men with tools and expertise to understand the root causes of violence in their communities, to educate and involve their peers and communities to prevent such violence, and to learn about where to access support if they experience violence.Increasingly, UN Women is strengthening prevention interventions that include and also go beyond awareness-raising, to engage with schools, faith-based organizations, media and communities at large. In Mozambique for example, UN Women successfully advocated for the UNCT to adopt ending violence against women as one of two signature themes for the country and in partnership UNFPA and UNICEF, national institutions and civil society organizations developed and are implementing a comprehensive approach to prevent violence against women and girls in a total of five districts in 4 provinces, reaching opinion and community leaders and enlisting youth as agents for change in seven secondary schools. In India, UN Women contributed to prevention of trafficking in women and girls through the establishment of 40 Anti-Trafficking Vigilance Committees as well as to increasing the evidence base through research on various forms of VAW and strategies to address them. In Timor-Leste, UN Women was included in the curriculum reform reference group and provided inputs on school curricula and lesson materials related to VAW prevention and promotion of gender equality for potential integration in the Basic Education Curriculum. Hide

In commemoration of International Women’s Day, ESCAP and UN Women organized an event on “Ending Violence against Women - Our Shared Responsibility” during which new research findings on men’s use of violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific were presented. The ILO Director General along government, workers' and employers' representatives participated in a panel debate with the theme “STOP Violence at work” (http://www.ilo.org/gender/Events/international-women-day/lang--en/index.htm). ESCWA hosted a roundtable discussion on GBV, during which the ESCWA Regional Appeal on GBV -- signed by 58 prominent Arab figures– was launched stressing the need for the active engagement of several segments of society in ending VAW. Hide

UN Women, UN ECLAC and UNFPA held a sub-regional capacity development workshop in Paraguay – targeting mainly defense forces and civil society - on SCR 1325, with a focus on GVC and sexual and reproductive health. The workshop was based on the curriculum that was developed on the issues for the Latin American and Caribbean region in 2012.

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UN Women continues to lead a global knowledge management initiative to address violence against women and girls, reaching 1,428,563 visitors from 232 countries and territories in four years. By the end of 2013, the Virtual Knowledge Centre (http://www.endvawnow.org) provided 11 programming modules in English, French and Spanish covering various sectors (Health, Justice and Security); settings (Safe Cities and Conflict/Post-conflict/Emergency); and interventions (Shelter, Legislative Development and Reform; Working with Men and Boys; Monitoring and Evaluation), with a tools database of over 950 tools in more than 65 languages. Hide

UNFPA and UN Women launched and rolled out the Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence. This Joint Programme is aimed at responding to the critical gaps and challenges that limit expanded access to quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls victims/survivors of violence. With a particular focus on developing countries, the programme aims to achieve greater access for all women and girls who have experienced violence to a set of essential quality and coordinated multi-sectoral services. Under this initiative, a global experts meeting was convened, also in collaboration with WHO, in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2013 to reach an agreement on the set of essential health services that are required to be provided to women and girls vulnerable to or that have been subjected to violence. Hide

In December 2010, OHCHR and UN Women were tasked by the Secretary-General’s Policy Committee to develop a Guidance Note on reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence. The Guidance Note, which was informed by a study jointly commissioned by OHCHR and UN Women, provides policy and operational guidance for Member States, UN agencies, development actors, and civil society organizations on the topic, and will be finalized in the first quarter of 2014. Hide

UN Women continues to manage the Secretary-General’s Database on Violence against Women, the first-ever, central repository on government measures to addres the issue. As of 31st December 2012, the Secretary-General's Database contained information on over 180 countries with 132 Member States having made formal submissions. Hide

UN Women’s flagship programme, Safe Cities for Women, is operating in 13 countries to develop models of urban spaces free from violence against women and girls. Five cities (Cairo, Delhi, Kigali, Port Moresby and Quito) are applying an impact evaluation methodology to contribute a solid evidence basis for what works. Cities are using various data collection methods, for example: multi-media and smart phone technology in Rio’s favelas; engendering of existing survey instruments in the Municipal Observatories of Quito; and institutionalization of safety audits in Cario. Hide