Mar 2012 - Feb 2013

OHCHR supported the formulation and implementation of laws on violence against women in accordance with international standards in Afghanistan, Timor-Leste, the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Maldives. In Papua New Guinea, following sustained advocacy by OHCHR and its UN partners, the country’s Law Reform Commission proposed a repeal of the country's sorcery act.

UNDP continues to support legal advancements, including through technical and financial support to the Government of Sierre Leone for passage of the Sexual Offences Act (August 2012) and support to the Government of Tajikistan in drafting the “Law on prevention of Domestic Violence” adopted in December 2012.

The UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation supported 12 out of the 15 countries, where it works, to develop a legislative framework to address this harmful practice. Such legislation has been recently adopted in Kenya, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Somalia.

UNHCR advocated for legal reforms related to gender equality and sexual and gender-based violence in 2012. For example, in Georgia a new law on domestic violence requires police to respond immediately to cases of domestic violence, and even if there is no apparent injury but violence has occurred, the police is required to issue a restrictive order.

OHCHR, as a member of the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT) and United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UNGIFT) ensured a human rights based approach was mainstreamed throughout all the policy papers developed by ICAT including the joint paper on the intersection between legal regimes to combat trafficking was produced.

UNICEF chaired the Inter-agency Coordination Group Against Trafficking in Persons during 2012, during which a discussion paper was commissioned on “The International Legal Frameworks concerning Trafficking in Persons.” UNICEF also provided inputs and support to various other international instruments and processes, including: the UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/67/146 on “Intensification of Efforts to Eliminate Female Genital Mutilations”; the CRC and CEDAW committee’s development of a joint general comment/general recommendation; a specific section on the impact of small arms and light w

UNAIDS is supporting a number of actions to highlight the link between violence against women and HIV, as well as the role of the HIV response in overcoming violence against women. These include Country consultations led by the Women Won’t Wait campaign; and a high level panel during the CSW on the linkages between violence against women and HIV.

OHCHR submitted two papers on the application of a human rights approach to prevention of violence against women and human rights based approach to multi-sectoral responses as part of the preparation of the SG’s reports for the 57th CSW session.

The priority theme of the 57th Commission on the Status of Women CSW (2013) is Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. Several UN agencies have undertaken initiatives to mobilise on the topic, with UN Women leading the CSW process. UN Women, UNFPA, UNDP, UNICEF and WHO co-organized a first-ever Expert Group Meeting hosted in Bangkok with the support of ESCAP on prevention of violence against women in lead up to CSW.

UN Women drafted and submitted two Secretary-General’s reports on “Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women” (A/67/220), and “Trafficking in women and girls” (A/67/170). Technical inputs and expertise was also provided to the co-chairs of the General Assembly’s 67th Session on the resolutions on “Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women” (A/RES/67/144) and “Trafficking in women and girls” (A/RES/67/145), respectively, as well as to Member States more generally.