Mar 2011 - Jan 2012

UN Women continued to maintain and update the Secretary-General’s database on violence against women. As of 31 January 2012, a total of 119 responses to the questionnaire on violence against women were received and uploaded into the database. In March 2011, UN Women gave a presentation, as a side event during the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, on how to use the Secretary-VCGeneral’s database on violence against women and the Virtual Knowledge Center to End Violence Against Women and Girls.

UN Women manages the project Pacific Regional Facility Fund in Support of Organisations and Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women (EVAW), which is a regional ‘basket fund’ to support a small grants facility for Pacific Island organisations and actions to eliminate VAW.

In Latin America, UNODC Regional Office for Brazil and the Southern Cone developed a project for the strengthening of public and civil society institutions to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The project seeks to improve the countries' capacity to offer support to gender-based violence victims and to develop a regional knowledge/expertise on this problem and to architect a good practices network, gathering players from the community, civil society and governmental institutions.

In Afghanistan, OHCHR/UNAMA provided support to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and provincial Departments to establish commissions on the elimination of violence against women in different provinces.

UNHCR office in India and in cooperation with the government, in response to one of the recommendations from the Dialogues with refugee replaced paper refugee certificates with smart ID cards, resulting in enhanced protection and access to services. In refugee camps where UNHCR has SGBV programs, UNHCR and its partners ensured that 95% of known survivors received support services; in urban areas the support reached 87% of survivors.

Under the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund-EVAW), UN Women was supporting activities to monitor cases of sexual and gender-based violence committed under the Khmer Rouge regime, as well as to build safe working conditions for women workers.

In Uganda, OHCHR, in partnership with the Human Rights Commission, consulted women and girls who were victims of grave violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law on their views on remedy and reparation. This work was published in the report “The Dust Has Not Settled: Community reflections on reparations in northern Uganda.” In May 2011, an expert meeting on gender and witness and victim protection was organized.

In Bolivia, with the sponsorship of UN Women, the Centre for Integral Development of Aymara Women (CDIMA) worked with local authorities from the municipalities of Mocomoco, Comanche and Simanco. Following this collaboration, the authorities signed agreements to ensure indigenous women´s access to justice in particular in cases of gender based violence. In the process of improving women´s access to justice, CDIMA has strengthened the coordination between ordinary jurisdiction and indigenous justice systems.

In October 2011, in collaboration with Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) and the Togolese Ministry of Women Affairs, the ECA organized a Regional Stakeholders’ Meeting in Togo on “Women’s Access to Legal and Judicial Services”, which focused on access to justice for women victims of violence including in conflict settings, and on the need for a multisectoral response to victims through the provision of legal, medical and psychosocial support services.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UNICEF is the lead agency, with the Ministry of Health, to coordinate response – “the Multi-Sectoral Assistance pillar” - with a goal to improve the quality, accessibility and delivery of services for survivors. In the Horn of Africa, UNICEF supported safe access to fuel and fuel efficient stoves. A regional strategy is being developed along with Women’s Refugee Committee, UNHCR and WFP.