International Law and Policy

ESCWA supports the work of intergovernmental bodies, including the Arab Regional Conference Ten Years after Beijing: A Call for Peace in Beirut (2004), which resulted in the five-year work programme that includes women’s rights and violence against women among its five priority areas. In 2004, ESCWA conducted the Arab regional ten-year review and appraisal of implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, which included attention to violence against women.

ECLAC is presently collaborating with the regional Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights to establish ways of linking follow-up of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará).

ILO’s approach to violence against migrant women is also based on the promotion of labour standards for migrant workers within a Decent Work framework. Important standards to specifically promote the protection and welfare of migrant workers, including women, are the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised) 1949 (No.97), Migrant Workers Supplementary Provisions Convention 1975, (N0.143) and the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (N0.181).

ECA supports inter-governmental processes, including those that result in policy instruments for the advancement of women, and the elimination of violence against women. It supports the work of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices on fight against traditional practices that are harmful to women and girls, including genital mutilation.

DPKO contributes to policy development in the area of gender-based violence against women through its support to intergovernmental processes, in particular the Security Council.

UNODC prepares reports for intergovernmental bodies on criminal justice aspects of violence against women.

DAW, now part of UN Women, conducts research and analysis and regularly prepares reports of the Secretary-General, in response to inter-governmental mandates, seeking inputs from governments and other stakeholders on progress made and obstacles encountered, and on good practices and lessons learned. Reports cover all forms of violence against women, as well as particular aspects such as trafficking in women, traditional practices harmful to women and girls, and violence against women migrant workers.

ILO’s International Migration Programme (MIGRANT) prepared a global policy-advice report on gender and migration for the International Conference on Gender, Migration and Development: Seizing Opportunities and Upholding Rights (ICGMD) that covered the issue of violence against women migrant workers. The conference took place in September 2008 and was organized with UNIFEM, UNICEF, Migrants Forum in Asia (MFA), and Migrant Rights International (MRI) and resulted in The Manila Call to Action and its Resolution:http://www.icgmd.info/docs/icgmd_manila_call_to_action.pdf

OHCHR entered into a partnership with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in order to contribute to shaping policy in the areas of addressing violence against women, the promotion of gender equality and ensure respect of individual gender identity.

DAW, now part of UN Women, prepared reports of the Secretary-General to the sixty-third session of the General Assembly on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women (A/63/214), trafficking in women and girls (A/63/215), and eliminating rape and other forms of sexual violence in all their manifestations, including in conflict and related situations (A/63/216).