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To raise awareness on human rights issues and specifically on violence against women, ECA launched in April 2007, with the collaboration of the UNDP Regional Gender Programme, the African Women’s Rights Observatory (AWRO). The AWRO is expected to contribute to strengthening of tracking and monitoring protection/violations of women’s rights, including violence against women, in African countries. Hide

WHO has carried out a multi-country study on women’s health and domestic violence against women, aimed at enhancing availability of reliable data on the root causes, magnitude, and consequences of violence against women and facilitating the search for solutions. A report summarizing initial data from Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia & Montenegro, Thailand and the United Republic of Tanzania was published in 2005; other countries are replicating the methodology (Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Maldives and New Zealand). WHO has also published ‘Putting women first: ethical and safety recommendations for research on domestic violence against women’ (2001), as well as a package of study materials, including the protocol, survey instruments and training manuals for implementing the Study. Based on the experience gained with the Study, WHO is contributing to the development of indicators and survey methodology on violence against women. Hide

The Global Forum for Health Research and WHO supported the development of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative. This Initiative aims to build a network of researchers, policy-makers, activists and other stakeholders to ensure that sexual violence is addressed from the perspective of different disciplines. A research agenda for sexual violence has been developed and reviews of evidence have been done on women’s and medico-legal responses to sexual violence. Hide

WHO has carried out groundbreaking research on the obstetric sequelae of female genital mutilation and continues to support Member States in their efforts to end FGM as well as research on community interventions, decision-making, FGM and sexuality, with the aim of informing policies and community action. Hide

IOM conducts and supports research designed to guide and inform migration policy and practice, with a special focus on violence against women, not only in counter-trafficking studies, but also in labour migration and in emergency and post-conflict research. Hide

DPKO gender units support regional and national initiatives to respond to gender-based violence, for example by working with national machineries for the advancement of women as is the case in Haiti, Timor-Leste, Kosovo and Burundi. DPKO civilian police advisers in missions assist local police in crime prevention and investigation. Hide

A regional training workshop conducted by DAW, now part of UN Women, in Bangkok, Thailand, 2006 on follow-up to concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, included violence against women as one of the three areas of focus. DAW also has a programme of support to countries emerging from conflict (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Haiti and Afghanistan) to enhance their capacity for implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. Violence against women is regularly addressed under the framework of this programme. Hide

Successful collaboration between DPKO and civilian police advisers has resulted in the establishment of special units within police stations to deal with violence against women, provision of private spaces for women to report gender-based violence, and establishment of safe houses for women victims of violence. Drawing from the experience in Sierra Leone, family support units have been established in Liberia. UNIFEM also supports the creation of specialised institutions, such as police gender desks. Hide

ECA supports Member States, at their request, and undertakes capacity-building activities for non-governmental organizations on women’s human rights. ECA supports training workshops on women’s human rights, with a focus also on violence against women, in collaboration with partners from governments, United Nations entities and civil society. Examples include a regional training workshop on women’s human rights in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 2003; and a national training workshop on gender mainstreaming in Uganda, in 2004. Hide

UNDP supports and undertakes the development of training modules for policy makers, law enforcement agencies and communities aimed at addressing violence against women, and contributes to capacity development at national and local levels. Hide