Measures

UNHCR organizes training on SGBV to enable the organization to meet standards in prevention and response.UNHCR’s system for measuring progress in operations includes standards and indicators on SGBV, and offices are required to report on their performance in relation to meeting the standards. In addition, the UNHCR’s global strategic objectives and measurable targets include a requirement that all UNHCR operations will have in place standard operating procedures for SGBV prevention and response by the end of 2007. Hide

UNHCR has assigned country-level focal points in each of its offices to carry out the recommendations of the Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (ST/SGB/2003/13). The Office continues to promote and report on the implementation of the Bulletin and provides annual refresher sessions for staff on its Code of Conduct. UNHCR’s Code of Conduct includes a section on sexual exploitation and abuse by humanitarian workers. All agreements with implementing partners include a mandatory appendix (2) on “Standards of Conduct – Ensuring protection from sexual exploitation and abuse”. Hide

Specific attention is paid in UNHCR’s work to involving more male staff and refugees, including youth, in understanding, preventing and addressing sexual and gender-based violence. Hide

UNHCR focuses its awareness and outreach programmes on people of concern, UNHCR staff and partners. UNHCR operations participate in the annual campaign “16 days of activism against gender violence” and use several community-based mechanisms to increase awareness about sexual and gender-based violence. Specific programmes have also mobilized men and boys on preventing and responding to SGBV. Hide

In the framework of its project to fight human trafficking in Africa, UNESCO carries out research on factors leading to human trafficking in 6 pilot countries (Benin, Nigeria, Togo, Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa) and proposes concrete recommendations. Hide

UNESCO (Social and Human Science Section) undertakes research on the causes and social structures that foster violence against women. As part of its research activities for the ten-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, UNESCO produced a conceptual framework for qualitative and quantitative information on women’s empowerment. One of the 7 sets of indicators pertains to women’s bodily integrity and health, including data on the prevalence of female genital mutilation; sexual abuse of women; and physical abuse against women by an intimate partner. Hide

In January 2006, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs, established a Palestinian Women’s Research and Documentation Center. The first of its kind in an Arab country, outside North Africa, this institution serves as both a documentation and resource centre and as an observatory. It is devoted to research on gender equality and human rights with an emphasis on women’s rights legislation, the causes and consequences of poverty among women, violence against women and women’s participation in political life. Hide

UNESCO created a digital library in Kazakhstan. There is also an online legal service which answers questions related to domestic violence, marriage and family, gender policy issues, and maternity. Hide

In implementation of Security Council Resolution 1325, UNESCO, in collaboration with partners from the University of Hull (UK) and the Center for Human Rights, University of Pretoria (South Africa), launched a research programme on women's rights for peace and security in post conflict democracies in Africa. The aim of this program is to develop policy recommendations that address obstacles, such as violence against women, to women’s full participation in and contribution to peace and security in post conflict countries in Africa. UNESCO organized, in 2005, a consultation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, engaging a wide range of stakeholders. It focused on the status of women in the Great Lakes region of Africa, covering also violence against women, especially sexual violence. Hide

UNESCO collects and disseminates best practices in combating human trafficking in Africa in order to bridge the gap between knowledge and policy. Hide