Mar 2010 - Sept 2010

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, continues to provide technical assistance to advocates, including national women’s machineries, for the development of National Action Plans to end violence against women in: eight Caribbean countries; the Seychelles, through work with the Ministry of Health and Social Development; and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, through a workshop with the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs on the National Strategy to Combat Violence against Women.

UNRWA is participating in the different UN taskforces aiming to build national strategies to end violence against women in Lebanon, Syria and the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). In the latter specifically, UNRWA is addressing gender-based violence through its participation in the Gender Equality - Social, Political and Economic programme.

In May 2010, seven UN agencies (UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, UNDP, UNHCR, OHCHR, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO) have launched a three-year UN Joint Program "Ending violence against women - a national priority for Kyrgyzstan".

As Protection Cluster chair, the OHCHR promoted coordination on strategy and advocacy among actors working to address violence against women in Timor-Leste.

In collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)/Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, DAW, now part of UN Women, organized an expert group meeting on good practices in national action plans on violence against women, which took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, from 13 to 15 September 2010. During the meeting, experts identified key elements and good practice examples for the development, content, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of national action plans on violence against women.

The Regional Office of the OHCHR in Panama has provided, occasionally together with UNDP, technical support for the elaboration of a law on violence against women, which is expected to be adopted on 25 November 2010.

In Egypt, UNDP’s support has resulted in the enactment of a law under the Egyptian Penal Code which criminalizes female genital mutilation. In Lebanon, UNDP promoted a law on violence against women. In the ECIS region, UNDP Kosovo supported the drafting of a law on domestic violence, which is currently under discussion.

The OHCHR/Human Rights and Transitional Justice Section in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste provided a human rights commentary on the draft law against domestic violence.

Through its ongoing work with parliamentarians, women’s machineries and the women’s movement, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, continued to support efforts for legislative reforms including a law on domestic violence in Timor-Leste.

The Handbook for legislation on violence against women (UNDAW/DESA, 2010) was published and its final version is available on the website of DAW, now part of UN Women, https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-handbook.htm. Copies of the Handbook are available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.