Jul 2007 - Jan 2008

Local stakeholders from government agencies, civil society and service provider organizations are trained with the support of IOM to offer an enhanced assistance for trafficked victims and prosecute traffickers. Since February 2008, IOM has conducted specialized training and capacity building workshops in a number of cities in Pakistan to sensitize a variety of actors on human trafficking, emphasizing the different dimensions of violence against women.

WHO held an expert meeting on primary prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence on 2-3 May in Geneva (report and background paper available in the WHO website).

In Costa Rica, UNICRI carried out specialized training for law-enforcement professionals. It provided training for Hotline and Information Call Centers operators on commercial sexual exploitation of children; the extension of the Information System for specialized public prosecutor offices to the Prosecutor’s Office of Liberia and Jacó and related training of personnel.

In June 2008 in Uganda, 35 schools received support by UNICEF to form child rights clubs. Trainings for Parents/Teachers Associations (PTAs) and School Management Committees (SMCs) on child rights and sexual abuse were conducted. UNIFEM supported a regional radio network (ALER) to train community radio staff in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, working among indigenous communities.

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) and Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) to establish a gender working group in the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Investigation section. WFP supported the establishment of two Gender Desks in the National Police and in the Ministry of Defence, in Rwanda. The primary task of these units is to assist Concerned National Institutions and other stakeholders to address issues related to gender-based violence.

In August 2007, INSTRAW, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), hosted an expert workshop on gender and security sector reform, which brought together a number of experts in different areas of the security sector (police, military, border management, private security companies, etc.) to discuss issues such as gender training, gender mainstreaming, and an appropriate response to physical and sexual violence against women.

In Rwanda, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the training of over 2,000 defence force members and local leaders and support was provided to the national police in drafting training manuals for investigating sexual and gender-based violence.

In Nicaragua, a UNDP pilot project on domestic and sexual violence is being implemented in two municipalities in partnership with the National Police. In Afghanistan, UNDP is supporting the implementation of a project to strengthen the Police Force’s family violence unit in Kabul.

As part of a programme to assist the prison reform in Southern Sudan, UNODC has developed, together with UNMIS, a training programme to build leadership capacity within the prison service and address the circumstances of prisoners with special needs.

In Rajasthan, India, UNODC contributed to an initiative together with MIT’s Poverty Action Lab, to train police officers to respond effectively to violence against women. The programme aimed at improving public perception and trust of the community as well as overall capacity of over 2000 police personnel, including police officers in four women police stations.