Prevention, Including Awareness Raising and Advocacy

Applying Social Media Tools for the Prevention of Gender-based Violence: Lessons learned from social media communication campaigns to prevent gender-based violence in India, China and Viet Nam’; was launched and disseminated by P4P in 2013. This resource consolidates learning from the P4P initiative ‘Engaging Young Men through Social Media for the Prevention of Violence against Women’. “Let’s Talk Men 2.0” film series7 launched in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka with accompanying tools for discussion facilitators. 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

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

UN Women’s Safe Cities Global Initiative includes: the “Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women and Girls” Global Programme (2011-2017), in partnership with UN Habitat, and 50 other local and global partners operating in 9 countries to develop models to prevent sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces. Five pilot cities of the programme (Cairo, Delhi, Kigali, Port Moresby and Quito) are applying an impact evaluation methodology to contribute a solid evidence basis for what works. Some city level results in 2013 include: in Kigali, the city created a toll free line to increase reporting of incidents of sexual violence and harassment in public spaces. In Port Moresby,vendors established associations in the markets – two in Gordons and one in Gerehu, with 50% representation of women in executive positions. In New Delhi, with technical support from UN Women and partners such as Jagori, Mission Convergence and Department of Women and Child Development, Government of NCT of New Delhi, the Safe City Programme conducted over 100 women safety audits in 25 areas in New Delhi. The safety audit tool was also piloted in two new cities – Mumbai and Bengaluru.The Global Initiative also includes the UN Women, UNICEF and UN Habitat Joint Programme “Safe and Sustainable Cities for All”(2012-2017), which is currently being implemented in 8 additional cites: Greater Beirut (Lebanon), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Metro Manila (Philippines),Marrakesh (Morocco), Nairobi (Kenya), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), San José (Costa Rica) and Tegucigalpa (Honduras). Some city-level results of the programme include: In Manila, a ‘Safety Scan Instrument’ was developed to identify and assess violence risks in the neighbourhoods of Mandaluyong, Quezon and Pasay to inform strategies for structural improvements. In Marrakech, a participatory Scoping Study was completed in 2013 to inform the design of the programme.For more information: https://www.unwomen.org/ru/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/creating-safe-public-spaces Hide

The Regional UN Women Campaign ‘El valiente no es violento’ was launched in Quito, Ecuador, aimed at raising awareness among especially young men on ending VAW, and has been further launched at the national level in Cuba, Argentina, Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela and Nicaragua. 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

ESCAP and UN Women organized an advocacy event on “Ending Violence against Women and Girls” at the Sixth Asian and Pacific Population Conference on 18 September 2013 which focused on coordinated and multi-sectoral actions to prevent and end violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. Hide

Progress has been made in recent years in relation to the widespread grassroots abandonment of the practice of FGM/C. Several individuals have been gradually been arrested and convicted in 2013, while since the inception of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme and Trust Fund on Female Genital Mutilation in 2008, more than 10,000 communities in 15 countries, representing more than 8 million people have denounced the practice. UNFPA and UNICEF published the 2012 annual report and concluded phase one of their Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in 15 countries of Africa and the Middle East and conducted a joint final evaluation of the five years of work. UNFPA and UNICEF organized an international conference in Rome in October 2013, attended by over 30 governments, UN agencies and civil society to consolidate lessons learned from phase one and build political and technical consensus for phase two. Phase two will run from 2014-2017 and will cover 17 countries in Africa and the Middle East and will pursue a holistic approach in line with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 67/146. UNHCR carried out activities to raise awareness on VAW, including on FGM in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. Hide

On 31 July 2013, UNICEF launched the global ‘End Violence against Children’ which aims to leverage efforts already underway by a growing number of organizations worldwide to protect children, and urges people everywhere to recognize violence against children, join global, national or local movements to end violence, and encourage action where none is taking place. The initiative serves as a platform for catalysing social change and also for strengthening national protective systems. Hide

Numerous UN entities, as key member of the Secretary-General’s Campaign Unite to End Violence Against Women and Girls, launched various campaigns and events to mark the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence in 2013. For example, OHCHR created a dedicated web page, organised an online panel discussion on the role of small arms on gender-based violence. UNDP organized a meeting in Namimbia aimed at mobilizing men in EVAW. Hide