Mar 2010 - Sept 2010

In Albania, UNDP supported the establishment of a community centre in Durrës to assist victims of domestic violence which provides free legal services, and a telephone hotline. A new programme entitled “Economic Empowerment of Women Victims of Domestic Violence” was launched in FYR Macedonia in March 2010. Under this programme, UNDP will assist victims by providing opportunities for self-employment and training for skills in demand in the job market.

The OHCHR/Human Rights and Transitional Justice Section in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste monitored the response of the formal justice system to reported cases of violence against women, including whether traditional justice mechanisms are given priority in such cases. In March 2010, through participation in working groups, the OHCHR also provided a human rights and protection commentary on draft governmental policy related to emergency shelters and safe houses for survivors of violence against women.

WHO/PAHO organized a workshop on the prevention of intimate partner violence and sexual violence with participants from four Latin American countries, aimed at introducing concepts of primary prevention, reviewing the evidence and encouraging development of country prevention initiatives.

UN-HABITAT is implementing, in partnership with the NGO “Jagori”, a project on Youth and Girls Safety, in one of the settlement communities in New Delhi. Project activities include: the sensitisation of young girls and boys to prevent and end violence against women and girls; and the re-examination of masculinities and gender identities by young men.

The OHCHR/Human Rights and Transitional Justice Section in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste has continued to conduct activities on the prevention and elimination of violence against women.

During the World Soccer Cup in South Africa, UNFPA released globally the video-game that uses football as the medium to address violence against women, to be found at http://www.breakawaygame.com. Country-level efforts, under the umbrella of the Secretary General’s campaign, are being initiated by UNFPA country offices in Africa and Latin America, being related to the five key outcomes of the campaign’s Framework for Action.

In Gaza, the Equality in Action programme, supported by UNRWA, continues the discussions that target men and women in the community, as well as religious leaders and UNRWA health staff, to raise awareness of the impact of violence against women.

UNIFEM’s (now part of UN Women) Safe Cities Global Programme, implemented in partnership with UN-HABITAT, among other partners, completed impact evaluation validation missions with International Center for Research on Women in Cairo, Kigali, New Delhi, Quito and Port Moresby, to inform the selection of programme sites.UNIFEM is involved in various global initiatives on primary prevention, including Clinton Global Initiative Commitments, focused on young people as a strategic group, by serving in the Steering Committee of one of the initiatives which addresses sexual abuse of girls; partnering

In Asia Pacific, the Partners for Prevention (P4P) - an inter-agency initiative of UNDP, UNFPA, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, and UNVs- which works with men and boys to prevent gender-based violence– has developed a comprehensive set of research tools on gender-based violence, including questionnaires, research protocols, and training manuals for the “Gender-based Violence Prevention and Masculinities” Collaborative Research Project for Asia and the Pacific. These tools have been shared with partners in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

In Sri Lanka, UNDP is preparing to use street dramas to present issues related to VAW. In Sierra Leone, UNDP supported 8 civil society organizations to be engaged in awareness-raising on gender laws, sexual gender-based violence, and harmful traditional practices. In addition, 24 radio programmes were organized by UNDP implementing partners for sensitization messages.