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Under the Spotlight Initiative join programmes for Mexico and Kyrgyzstan, UNODC promoted protection, support and services for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
In Viet Nam, UNODC continued technical support to Domestic Violence Rapid Response Teams, composed of police officers, Women’s Union leaders and volunteers, providing immediate support and options to survivors, facilitating prosecution of perpetrators and supporting a zero tolerance culture towards gender-based violence in the community.
During the reporting period, UNODC provided training and capacity building on crime prevention and criminal justice responses to gender-based violence against women for criminal justice professional (police, prosecutors, judges, legal aid and other service providers) in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, Mexico, Nepal, Saudi, Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, State of Palestine and Viet Nam.
For example, in Viet Nam, UNODC trained 166 criminal justice officers in providing protective and justice services for victims of violence against women and girls. The UNODC Handbook on effective adjudication of violence against women was adopted by the Supreme Court.UNODC also provided training, with a focus on the gender aspect of trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrant, under its GLO.ACT and TRACK4TIP programmes. This included specialized workshops for judges in Kyrgyzstan, the Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency, the GBV police unit of Trinidad and Tobago, Community Justice Homes supporting Dominican-Haitian women, as well as trainings for Venezuelan women to promote early identification of TIP and safe case referral.
Protection and assistance for victims of trafficking and victims of aggravated smuggling are issues addressed in all training and capacity building work concerning trafficking in persons that UNODC undertakes. All UNODC responses, activities and publications on trafficking in persons are gender- and age-responsive, human-rights-based and victim-centred.
UNODC manages the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking, which financially supports grass-roots NGOs who provide direct and immediate assistance to victims of trafficking. 90% of projects support victims who are women or girls. Donations are collected from 31 States and 32 private companies. So far, USD 3.5 million have been distributed to 60 NGOs world-wide. Currently, a fourth round of applications is being evaluated by the Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section (HTMSS) with over 330 NGOs applying for grants between USD 5,000-60,000 each.
In Guatemala, as part of the Office’s support to National Civil Police under the Joint UN Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence, UNODC supported the attribution of additional functions to citizen service offices to help better support victims of gender-based violence.
In 2019, UNODC trained over 3,500 criminal justice practitioners, governmental officials and civil society representatives under the Global Programme against Trafficking in Persons and provided 25 countries with technical assistance at the national level.
In Lesotho and South Africa, UNODC enhanced police responses to gender-based violence by conducting two specialisation workshops for 70 police officers on the investigation and case management of cyber- and gender-based violence cases.
In Myanmar, UNODC, in collaboration with UNFPA, UN Women and UNICEF, trained 1,300 officers from the national police force on responding to incidents of gender-based violence. Additionally, UNODC implemented a two-stage training programme in collaboration with the Office of the Attorney General, firstly with a training-of-trainers for senior prosecutors and later with regional roll-out trainings led by the Office of the Attorney General.
In Namibia, UNODC trained 103 participants (76 female and 27 male) in national training-of-trainers’ workshops on court support, preparation and trial advocacy in cases of gender-based violence.
In Viet Nam, UNODC delivered training on best practices in the provision of legal assistance to survivors of violence against women and girls for 265 police officers, prosecutors and legal aid professionals.
In Kyrgyzstan, UNODC supported a female police mentoring programme focusing on crime and gender-based violence prevention.
In Viet Nam, UNODC trained 140 criminal justice officers and legal aid professionals on providing legal assistance for survivors of violence against women and girls.
IN Mexico, UNODC continued its training programme on violence against women for police officers and emergency call operators in 26 states, reaching 7,500 professionals.
In Peru, UNODC trained judges, prosecutors, police officers and victim advocates on effective investigations of VAWG with a victim-centred approach, and contributed to the establishment of 10 specialized prosecution offices on VAWG and 5 courts in Lima.
In Egypt, UNODC trained more than 300 criminal justice practitioners (police, prosecutors, judges and forensic doctors) and provided the Forensic Medicine Authority with medical equipment to facilitate receiving the ISO certificate that will allow the clinics to meet international standards.
In Namibia, UNODC organized 5 training-of-trainers workshops on GBV for criminal justice practitioners to facilitate sensitization and strengthen the multi-sectoral response to gender-based violence.
Under its Global Programmes on Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants, in 2018. UNODC delivered over 250 Technical Cooperation activities in 80 countries, training over 4,500 practitioners, government officials and civil society representatives.
UNODC continues to provide expert assistance through Global Action against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (GLO.ACT). GLO.ACT assists governmental authorities and civil society organizations across 13 strategically selected countries (Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, the Kyrgyz Republic, Lao PDR, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Pakistan, South Africa, and Ukraine) by supporting effective responses to trafficking and smuggling, including assisting victims of trafficking and vulnerable migrants by strengthening identification, referral, and direct support mechanisms. Between July 2016 and December 2017, more than 70 activities were delivered in 11 countries.
UNODC provided training and capacity building to promote more effective police and justice responses to VAW/GBV in Egypt (training for police officers, prosecutors, judges and forensic doctors), (Kenya (training on gender mainstreaming), Kyrgyzstan (leadership training programme for female police officers to promote gender-sensitive local police services), Mexico (training programme for 8,000 police officers and emergency call operators in 25 states), Myanmar (training workshops for police instructors and front-line officers based on a new handbook and training curriculum), Namibia (training of trainers for police, prosecutors and victim service providers).
Protection and assistance for victims of trafficking in persons are cross-cutting issues addressed in all training and capacity building work concerning trafficking in persons that UNODC undertakes.
UNODC manages the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking, that financially supports grass-roots NGO who provide direct assistance to victims/survivors of human trafficking. During the reporting period the Trust Fund provided grants to 21 projects across the globe, mainly focusing on women and girls, particularly those trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Further, in 2017, the Trust Fund launched a call for proposals for its third grant cycle starting in 2018, prioritising projects assisting women and girl victims coming out of a context of armed conflict, as well as refugee and migration flows.
In the State of Palestine, UNODC supported six doctors in completing their four-year training programme in foresing medicine, which helped them to examine cases of sexual and gender based violence in West Bank forensic medicine clinics.
UNODC is working together with UN Women, UNFPA, UNDP and WHO to implement the UN Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence in pilot countries, including Egypt, Guatemala, Peru, Pakistan, Tunisia and Viet Nam.
In the Asia-Pacific region, UNODC conducted a training of trainers on effective prosecution responses to violence against women and girls, attended by prosecutors from 10 countries.
In Mexico, UNODC supported capacity building for prosecutors and judges in prosecuting violence against women case and providing assistance to victims. A new project in 19 Mexican states started developing capacities of first response police officers and emergency services of the federal police for victims of gender-based violence.