National Legislation

UNICEF country offices continued to support the development of legislation pertinent to violence against women and girls and to work with the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in partnership with a wide range of stakeholders, supported the introduction and strengthening of legislation against gender-based violence, including laws against domestic and sexual violence, rape and family law provisions in, for instance, Cameroon, Colombia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sierra Leone, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

In Equatorial Guinea, the findings and the recommendations of a UNDP-supported study on violence against women and children have been integrated in the draft bill on family law.

ESCWA undertook advisory missions in 2007 to strengthen capacity for the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, including legal reform and application of existing law in line with the Convention, as a pre-requisite for eradicating violence against women in the region.

DAW, now part of UN Women, participated in a regional conference on legal reform on domestic violence in Sofia, Bulgaria, in February 2008.

DPKO Gender Advisers support the adoption and implementation of laws to address SGBV at national level.

The World Bank is providing Uruguay with a US$300,000 Institutional Development Fund grant in order to implement international, regional and domestic laws on violence against women and improve access to justice for victims of domestic violence.

Many UNICEF country offices support the development of legislation on violence against women, including trafficking, domestic violence and sexual offences. UNICEF also works with the Inter-Parliamentary Union to strengthen legislative responses to violence against women and children. UNICEF recently published a guide for Members of Parliament on addressing violence against children.

UNFPA supports and advocates for the implementation of international agreements and conventions, laws and policies related to gender-based violence, as well as for government accountability.

In every sub-region, UNIFEM (now part of UN Women) supports efforts to introduce and strengthen legislation against gender-based violence, including domestic and sexual violence, trafficking in women and forced marriage, and to ensure that all forms of violence against women are criminalized.