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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.
In order to enhance the ability of Country Offices, Regional Service Centres and Regional Bureaux to deliver transformative results for gender equality, UNDP has created the UNDP Gender Equality Seal. The Seal is a corporate certification process that recognizes good performance in gender mainstreaming. It offers three levels of certification (Bronze, Silver or Gold). An office/unit can be certified and awarded after the following four steps: the first step consists of a self-assessment based on a set of benchmarks. In the current round of the Seal, countries have to score positively on several mandatory benchmarks and score a certain % of other benchmarks to get any certification award. One of the benchmarks (3.2) aims at preventing workplace harassment, sexual harassment and abuse of authority and states that an office/unit policy has to be notified and implemented. Specific responsibilities for senior management include communicating the policy to staff; ensuring that staff complete the online training course on harassment and abuse of authority; acting as a role model and resource on the policy for staff members and non-staff personnel; ensure prevention of harassment, especially by supervisors; take prompt action for investigation and redress of any incidents; ensure confidentiality and sensitivity; and ensure that there is no retaliation against complainants. They are 43 currently participating countries that will have to complete this mandatory benchmark to qualify for a Seal certification.
In Serbia, UNDP supported the Government to ratify key international conventions, enact a body of relevant laws and develop policies to eliminate gender based violence. Country’s priorities are outlined in the National Strategy for Prevention and Elimination of VaW in the Family and in Intimate Partner Relationships 2011-2015. The document is aligned with the international standards, particularly with Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating VaW and Domestic Violence. Serbia ratified the Convention in 2013 and it entered into force on 1st August 2014.
In Croatia, UNDP supported the Government with evidence and legal analysis to draft the law, which entered into force in June 2015, on the rights of victims of sexual violence during the conflict of the 1990s. “Law on Rights of Victims of Sexual Violence During the Armed Aggression on the Republic of Croatia During the Homeland War.” This is the first law in the region that provides civilian victims of sexual violence in armed conflict with a comprehensive set of reparation measures: medical and psychosocial rehabilitation, financial compensation, legal aid and symbolic acts of reparation. UNDP supports the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs in the implementation of mechanisms assessing the eligibility criteria for the status of survivors of sexual violence in armed conflict.