Mar 2013 - Feb 2014

UN Women supported the Government of Bangladesh to implement CEDAW, including through the training of judicial officers, a review of laws carried out in the light of CEDAW, and the development of a CEDAW Benchbook as reference material for Judicial Officers and the Police.

UNDP also supported capacity building efforts through mainstreaming of gender and juvenile justice issues within the work of the Ministry of Justice and the establishment and training of the Juvenile Justice Unit in OPT; the establishment of specialised units in Libya and Iraq; an assessment of the capacity of the National Police as well as of the specialized EVAW units of the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Afghanistan.

The UN Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) conducted a training course for female judicial and law enforcement officials in El Salvador on Combating the Illicit Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives aimed also at addressing the rise in femicides, which are further exacerbated by illicit arms trafficking.

OHCHR supported the development of a training course on human rights for judges and prosecutors in the Dominican Republic's Judicial Academy, also focusing on the specificities of gender-based violence and the need for proper investigation, prosecution and redress, as well as a permanent discussion group on human rights composed by judges and prosecutors within the Judicial Academy.

UNODC continued the training of judicial and law enforcement officials, including in S.Africa and Colombia, and supported in Kenya the development of the training manual entitled ‘Ending Sexual and Gender-based Violence: The Role of the Prosecutors’. In Mexico, the organization trained the Women’s Institute of Durango in strategic planning, measuring and strengthening state policies addressing violence against women.

UNESCO developed a university course on gender equality and the prevention of gender-based violence, in collaboration with six universities in Madagascar, and trained university staff on the topic in Madagascar and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition, a training module on prevention of gender-based violence was also developed for a training of trainers in Madagascar and a first training of trainers for rural communities on the topic was organized.

UNFPA convened an expert group on men and boys, masculinities and sexual and reproductive health issues in New York, in September, to better inform its work and 2014-2017 Strategic Plan.

In 2013, UNFPA held a multi-stakeholder workshop in St Lucia on sexual violence in the region as well as gaps and challenges in terms of implementation and hosted a capacity development workshop on pre-natal sex selection for various stakeholders from the regions of Asia-Pacific as well as Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, in New Delhi, India, in November 2013. The workshop examined the sex ratio imbalances, their context and factors at birth as well as their consequences and considered communication strategies and policy options.

UN Women in Vietnam commissioned, jointly with UNODC, a research on the gender responsiveness of the criminal justice system aimed at strengthening the government response to VAW and contributed to the preparation of the "UN GBV Issues paper kit" that brings together five issue papers on GBV, based on research undertaken in 2012 and 2013 in Viet Nam by UN agencies.

The largest-ever cross-country study on men and violence in Asia and the Pacific11 was launched by P4P, in September 2013, providing critical new evidence on men’s use of violence in the region. A UN Women, UK Aid and UNFPA-supported study on individual, institutional, legal and policy responses to VAWG in Nepal, was launched on 10 December.