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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 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 Central African Republic, where the current crisis has affected the social fabric of society and survivors of GBV are stigmatised, deprived of support and known to engage in risky coping strategies such as transactional sex for survival, FAO has partnered with UN Women to ensure that women affected by the conflict, including GBV survivors, benefit from livelihood strategies.
In terms of protection, support and services, ESCWA developed in 2015 a toolkit for service and protection provision to address Gender-Based Violence in the Arab region. This toolkit, developed in partnership with CAWTAR, targeted Government representatives, religious leaders and media professionals with a view to change gender-related behaviours and perspectives in public policy and the public sphere.
Within the framework of UN Secretary-General’s campaign “UNiTE to End Violence against Women”, UNIC (United Nations Information Centres) Beirut, Lebanon in partnership with the Theatre Club at the Balamand University in Lebanon produced a theatre play on the issue of violence against women targeting school students - a work that was fully supported and sponsored by the Lebanese Minister of Education and Higher Education. The play, entitled “We Are All Humans”, presented real cases of violence against women within families in Lebanon through a vibrant script and a combination of gestures, songs, music and dance performed by university students. It tackles the hereditary violence against women and sheds light on physical and moral violence practiced directly or indirectly against girls in society. UNIC took part in the script drafting and the directing process to reflect the real objectives of the UNiTE campaign aiming to prevent all forms of violence against women and girls and eliminate this scourge.
UN Women has been instrumental in ensuring that the Prevention against Domestic Violence Bill was adopted by the national Parliament in Kenya. This was a significant achievement, since Kenya previously did not have a specific law for prevention and response to domestic violence.
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 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.
In March 2015, the United Nations Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women (UNiTE) launched its call to action for the 16 Days of Activism, ‘Orange the World: End Violence against Women and Girls’. The theme of prevention of violence against women and girls was selected as a focus to provide opportunities to highlight the need for greater investment in ending violence against women and girls at global, regional and country level in the particular context of the new SDG framework with a focus on prevention as a long term solution.
OHCHR advised states on reforming laws and supported the formulation and implementation of laws to ensure compliance with international human rights standards. In 2015, OHCHR supported the elaboration and implementation of laws on sexual violence (in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Kurdistan region of Iraq, Nigeria), promoting victims’ and witnesses’ participation in peace processes and reconciliation (in Sudan, Darfur and the Central African Republic), and assisting victims of sexual violence (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guatemala, Sudan, Tunisia). In Moldova, OHCHR assisted in the development and implementation of a project seeking to revise the prosecutorial guidance for rape investigations to ensure they are free from harmful stereotypes and in line with international standards.Through joint United Nations programming, OHCHR supported the development of a draft regulation in Kosovo on the verification of status of victims of sexual violence that occurred during the conflict. Also, technical advice was provided in Guatemala on reparations for victims of sexual violence with a view to influence the new national reparation scheme.OHCHR further assisted States in developing or revising family laws and legislation on issues such as violence against women (in Belarus, the Gambia, Myanmar, Senegal, Tunisia and Yemen).