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In 38 countries, UN Women contributed to implementation of laws and policies, building capacity and improving coordination to expand access to health, justice, police and shelter services – fundamental responses to hold perpetrators accountable and provide better outcomes for survivors. For example, in the State of Palestine, UN Women contributed to 10 fully functioning Family Protection Units across the West Bank, resulting in a near four-fold increase in the number of women reporting abuse in 2013 over the previous year. In addition, UN Women supported two shelters and one multi-purpose centre for survivors. Hide

In Kosovo, OHCHR published a study on sexual gender-based violence related to the conflict and actively advocated towards the adoption of a law for reparations of survivors of sexual violence, which is still with the Kosovo Assembly for further discussion. To assist the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325, OHCHR provided countries with financial and technical support to implement national actions plans such as Kosovo, or develop such plans, such as Guinea, which eventually adopted a national action plan (2013-2017). In December 2013, OHCHR organised a workshop in Cairo, on “Monitoring places of detention for women” and “The implementation of National Action Plans for 1325”with participants from NHRIs and civil society from Iraq, Oman, Palestine, Qatar and Yemen. Hide

UNAIDS and Department of Peace Keeping Operations are developing a toolkit related to “Shining the light on ending violence against women” in (post-) conflict settings. Hide

Social Norms and Community-based Care Programming in Humanitarian Settings: Building ‘Good Practice’ Approaches for Response to and Primary Prevention of Sexual Violence against Women and Girls Affected by Conflict is a three-year project by UNICEF, underway in Somalia and South Sudan. It focuses on building community-level prevention and response strategies to promote behaviour change towards greater respect for women and girls, and to prevent sexual violence as an inevitable and acceptable part of war. A key component of the project is rigorous research, conducted in partnership with Johns Hopkins University, which will document the impact of the programme. Hide

During the reporting period, OHCHR, in cooperation with UN Women, convened three validation workshops for the finalization of the Model Protocol for the investigation of femicide in Latin America. The tool aims at strengthening capacities to take gender aspects into account in analyzing the crime scenes and in identifying necessary expert evidence. The Model of Protocol was also presented to the Conference of State Parties to Inter-American Convention on Violence against Women (Belém do Pará Convention) and to the General Assembly of the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors (AIAMPO). The Human Rights Council, at its June 2013 session, adopted resolution 23/25 which recognized the Model Protocol as a good and promising practice (OP 19). Hide

WHO launched a programming tool: “16 ideas for addressing violence against women in the context of the HIV epidemic” during the16 days of activism campaign against gender-based violence which provides programme managers with effective interventions to prevent and respond to violence against women. Hide

WHO launched Clinical and policy guidelines for the health sector: Responding to intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women in June 2013. These guidelines are based on systematic reviews of all available evidence assessed by a group of experts. The guidelines have been widely disseminated through workshops, in partnership with UNFPA in Asia Pacific, as well as in 6 countries in West Africa and in China, Vietnam and with Syrian Ob/GYNs in Lebanon. Hide

UNFPA and UN Women launched and rolled out the Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence. This Joint Programme is aimed at responding to the critical gaps and challenges that limit expanded access to quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls victims/survivors of violence. With a particular focus on developing countries, the programme aims to achieve greater access for all women and girls who have experienced violence to a set of essential quality and coordinated multi-sectoral services. Under this initiative, a global experts meeting was convened, also in collaboration with WHO, in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2013 to reach an agreement on the set of essential health services that are required to be provided to women and girls vulnerable to or that have been subjected to violence. Hide

In Lebanon, UNRWA participates in the inter-agency national Sexual Gender Based Violence Taskforce (SGBVTF) and Child Protection in Emergencies Working Group aimed at providing services to Palestine refugees fleeing Syria to Lebanon through coordinated camp-based mapping of GBV and child protection services, capacity building, and case management. In Syria, UNRWA is part of the UN protection working group and participated in the GBV national matrix in addition to mapping available services for survivors, with both processes intended to support drafting the GBV responses plan at the country level. Hide

UNHCR continued its work, in partnership with with civil society, to ensure a holistic response for survivors of SGBV, including through establishment of safe spaces in centres in Lebanon, which are not specifically created for services provision to SGBV survivors, in order to avoid stigmatization of SGBV survivors seeking support; establishment of “centres d’écoute” for counselling services to SGBV survivors in Mali; establishment of family counselling mechanisms and community protection committees in Yemen to address domestic violence among Somali refugees; training in Burkina Faso for its staff and partners working with camp-based and urban refugees resulting in revisions to the SOP on SGBV in light of the changing situation in the Malian crisis. Hide