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In Kosovo (under Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)), Medica Kosova is implementing a small grant from the UN Trust Fund to implement a project whose aim is to protect the legal rights, including property rights, of women who have experienced gender-based violence during and after the armed conflict, and to improve institutional responses to gender-based violence. Medica Kosova is also providing monitoring and advocacy training for women’s organizations and is working with those organizations to identify shortcomings in the implementation of the national strategy against domestic violence. Thus far, the project has assisted 17 survivors of gender-based violence in obtaining legal support and starting the process of registering their properties. Another nine women, who have obtained official status as survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, have expressed an interest in following the legal procedures to register their houses and farms. In addition, 19 women have applied for the status of survivors of conflict related sexual violence and will be enrolled in the reparations scheme that provides them with a monthly lifetime pension.
In Chile, Corporación Humanas implemented a UN Trust Fund-funded project that brought together groups of migrant women; lesbian, bisexual and transgender women; women living with disabilities; and women living with HIV/AIDS to advocate for a comprehensive law that ends violence against women and girls and under which such violence is recognized not only in the private sphere, but also outside the family context. The bill, which was presented to Congress at the end of the project, reflects the many manifestations of gender-based violence, incorporates provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women a and is aimed at encouraging institutions and regulations to take an intersectional approach to ending violence against women. More than 600 underrepresented women and girls participated in active discussions about what should be in the bill.
In Peru, the organization Red Nacional de Promoción de la Mujer is implementing a project in the regions of Ayacucho and Huánuco aimed at reducing gender-based violence against older women who were victims of conflict-related violence in the 1980s and 1990s. The project has empowered more than 487 women, of whom 44 per cent were over 60 years of age, by increasing their awareness of their rights. Through peer-to-peer exchange workshops, the grantee reached more than 210 older women from various organizations and 286 men and other women, including students and youth groups. The grantee adopted a holistic approach to developing participatory needs assessments, awareness-raising and training workshops and communications campaigns, all focusing on rights, interculturality, gender and aging. The project was also aimed at raising awareness among local officials and advocating for gender- and age-sensitive public policies. As a direct result of the project’s implementation, older women are now part of community surveillance committees and the municipalities’ round table on poverty reduction. In addition, four emblematic cases of violations of women’s rights were reviewed and, to date, one case has been decided in favour of the survivor; the remaining three are pending decisions.
ACDemocracia worked in Ecuador to promote access to justice for women and girl survivors of violence. The UN Trust Fund-supported project seeks to promote the application of normative frameworks and policies for the protection of women’s rights by influencing legislative reform and changing cultural norms. The project is working with the Decentralized Autonomous Governments to strengthen the institutional response to violence at the local level.
At least 20,000 people received information on women’s right to live free of violence through various publicity initiatives, including broadcasts on the national and international media. By providing short six-week courses for 92 people, the project was able to increase the number of women and girls survivors supported to 699, an almost 10-fold increase from the start of the project.
A petition was launched in support of a comprehensive law on violence against women and girls which gathered 27,000 physical and 10,000 virtual signatures from all over the country. In January 2018, ACDemocracia led advocacy along with the National Coalition of Women and UN Women for the adoption of a new Comprehensive Law for the Prevention and Eradication of Violence against Women, which was approved with 90 per cent votes in favour by the parliament in Ecuador.
A project implemented by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) with funding from the UN Trust Fund in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya is working to address gaps in the medical-legal process in order to improve responses to sexual violence against women and girls. The programme has been actively engaged in the two countries, both of which have endured widespread, conflict-related sexual violence and were being investigated for mass crimes by the International Criminal Court.
In December 2017, the Kavumu Case was concluded with the conviction of 11 men for crimes against humanity for the rape of 37 toddlers and young girls over a three-year period in the village of Kavumu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This was a landmark case because a sitting government official was stripped of his immunity and was found guilty for crimes that he and his armed militia committed and because it was the first time that survivors/witnesses were afforded innovative means of protection in court in the country. PHR helped to coordinate the investigation and provided technical assistance to clinicians and police investigators that led to the arrests of militia members.