Prevention, Including Awareness Raising and Advocacy

The interagency initiative Together for Girls and UNAIDS co-hosted an event to commemorate World AIDS Day and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, focusing on the progress made toward addressing gender-based violence and the interface with HIV and on the leadership within the HIV and gender communities to raise awareness and increase access to prevention and care services. UNAIDS also supported Lesotho to use the Campaign on 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence to raise public awareness. UNAIDS supported Sri Lanka to integrate awreness-raising of HIV into its national advocacy and communication under the UNiTE campaign to end violence.The inter-agency intiitative Together for Girls brought greater visibility to empowering women and girls in the context of HIV at the International AIDS Society AIDS 2012 meeting in Washington DC, where the partnership was able to make the connection between child abuse, gender inequality and HIV. Hide

The World Bank has approved two initiatives in 2012 to address prevention in urban contexts: the “Honduras Safer Municipalities” initiative focused on citizen security through integrated approaches (including through school-based GBV prevention programmes) and the “Urban Infrastructure Project (II) – Barrios de Verdad (Bolivia) upgrading 22 neighborhoods, benefitting 15,280 people through infrastructural improvements and the provision of technical assistance to municipalities in the planning, expansion and sustainability of urban service delivery. Hide

In India, UN Women is supporting a social media campaign to engage young men for the prevention of violence against women and girls (VAWG) through the ‘MUST BOL’ campaign, a call to young people to examine violence in their lives and speak out against it. Must BOL has reached over 10,000 people through social media platforms. The campaign is being expanded from Delhi to other parts of India (see http://www.mustbol.in/campaign). UN Women also supported a One Million signature campaign in Pakistan focused on public awareness-raising on some of the pending legislations and for the effective advocacy and lobbying for pro-women legislations at the provincial level. The Elimination of VAWG Alliance provincial chapter was launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. See http://saynotoviolence.org/join-say-no/million-names-million-voices-break-silence-end-violence-against-women-girls? Hide

In Algeria, UN Women provided support to the national mechanism for women human rights to carry out the national campaign on violence against women, under the framework of the Africa UNiTE campaign to end violence. For the first time, the civil society working on violence against women has been clearly invited by the Ministry to present their work and achievements and to join their efforts to address this issue. Hide

UN Women carried out advocacy on the situation and conditions of Palestinian women in Israeli prisons internationally, through multi-media, itinerant, and photo exhibit.In Algeria, UN Women supported the advocacy efforts carried out by the AVIFE non-government organization, which is part of the Wassila network, on domestic violence and its impacts on women and children both at national and local level: The second edition of the “Black Book” on domestic violence was published and workshops for non-government organizations were conducted in 3 regions. UN Women also supported the Ytto Foundation advocacy efforts to end forced marriage of minor girls and regularization of customary weddings in Morocco through caravans known as “Caravan of Peace, Equality and Citizenship.” In 2011, the caravan covered more than 20 villages in remote areas. A documentary film on this issue was also produced which had a powerful impact on decision-makers. As a result, the Minister of Justice has launched missions led by judges and court clerks to ensure registration of customary marriages and enrolment in vital statistics of children born out of such marriages.UN Women organized a regional seminar in Morocco with the participation of counseling centers from Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania. Participating non-governmental organizations acquired a better understanding of the importance of working in networks and of the process of campaigning, and have exchanged best practices on ending gender-based violence. Hide

In the Dominican Republic, UN Women has printed and distributed 100 T- shirts with the UNITE logo. The Interagency Gender Group, to which UN Women is the leading agency in the Dominican Republic, organized a peer working breakfast on “role and responsibilities of the Media on ending violence against women” with Mass Media, led by the Argentinean journalist on gender Liliana Hendel. Hide

Gender-based violence prevention has been integrated into urban upgrading through the Barrios de Verdad (Real Neighborhoods) World Bank project in Bolivia. The project operates in collaboration with UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, and DFID in sixteen poor neighborhoods in La Paz. Along with other activities the project built indoor sanitation facilities and street lighting to improve pedestrian mobility and women’s security, which are said to have decreased outdoor violence against women. Several urban transport projects financed by the World Bank now include in their design indoor sanitation facilities and street lighting to improve pedestrian mobility and women’s security. Hide

The UN Women Safe Cities Free of Violence against Women and Girls Global Programme has continued to support national partners in five countries (Ecuador, Egypt, India, Papua New Guinea and Rwanda) to produce, test and offer for wide application and upscaling by local governments, a set of model approaches for preventing and reducing sexual violence against women and girls in public spaces in cities, and to expand its full impact potential for strengthening women’s empowerment, and enhance the quality of city life for all. Holistic programming includes building multisectoral partnerships in the areas of community mobilization, engagement of grassroots women, youth, men and boys, private sector, police, media; policy advocacy with local governments on practical urban safety measures, gender responsive budgeting, services provision for victims of violence. The focus of the country activities is on some of the most impoverished areas of the participating cities (Cairo, Kigali, New Delhi, Port Moresby and Quito). UN Women partners in this programme are UN Habitat, UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCO. Hide

UN Women launched an initiative to celebrate the International Day on Violence against Women (25th November) directed to UN Staff in Algeria with the active involvement of all UN resident agencies, in particular UNHCR, UNFPA, UNIC. Hide

In the Caribbean, the UN Women-spearheaded Partnership for Peace (PfP) Violence Intervention Programme, which was approved in 2010 in Barbados during the launch of the UNiTE campaign, is operating in Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Belize and British Virgin Islands, It has been designed to encourage men to take accountability for their actions and to support them in achieving a violence-free lifestyle. This program is aimed at men who perpetrated violence against women and have been taken to court for this crime. To date 300 men have gone through this programme that uses a psycho-educational approach to show that violent habits can be replaced with respect, open communication and healthy relationships. Hide