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UNFPA is a member of IASC and in contexts where the IASC Cluster Approach has been activated, UNFPA and UNICEF are mandated to co-lead the GBV Area of Responsibility. As co-lead, UNFPA is accountable for working closely with national authorities, partners and communities, to ensure that minimum standards are in place to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in emergencies.
In 2015, an agreement between UNICEF and the Child Soldiers Initiative was reached to second a child protection adviser to the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom). As part of a new cooperation arrangement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), UNICEF participated in the training in Zaragoza, Spain (October 2015), which resulted in a pre-deployment training of 32,000 NATO troops and civilians on practical field-oriented measures in preventing, monitoring and responding to violence and violations against women and children. This led into the integration of child protection in NATO-led operations, and establishing a violations alert mechanism when deployed in peace-keeping operations.
UNFPA works with key stakeholders to address inadquacies in national legislation in the vast majority of its 124 Country and Sub-Regional Offices. As much as 93 percent of UNFPA Country Offices are involved in the drafting of national legislation on VAW. In 2015, the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting (FGM/C) succeeded in assisting the governments and parliaments of Nigeria and Gambia on enacting specific national legislations on FGM/C. The “Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act” was adopted in Nigeria and an amendment was made to the “Women’s Act of 2010” in The Gambia.
In the wake of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, UNICEF mobilized more than 20,670 women by establishing 3,445 Women’s Groups in 14 earthquake-affected districts, with police checkpoints established to intercept traffickers. Over half a million people reached with information about prevention and social services for GBV victims.
As part of the Phase II of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on FGM/C, to strengthen the inter-linkages between VAWG and harmful practices such as FGM/C, and address the root causes of such violence, UN Women has developed is developing policy document on essential elements to end FGM/C as a form of VAWG, in addition to a training module on gender and FGM/C, to accompany the UNFPA-UNICEF Manual on Social Norms and Change.
In Viet Nam in 2016, UN Women supports Legal Aid Department of Ministry of Justice to build a legal aid system sensitive to the needs of VAW survivors. This includes 1) technical assistance to legal drafters of the amended Legal Aid Law and to develop joint UN recommendations together with UNDP, UNICEF, UNODC, UNAIDS, highlighting gaps with international normative frameworks; and 2) support to develop a guideline for legal aid providers, reflecting the legislative changes of the criminal laws in 2015 and promoting gender-sensitive and survivor-centred response based on international standards. Materials developed through the support to Judicial Academy and UNODC's handbook for legal aid providers on domestic violence cases will be utilized for this purpose.