United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Leveraging existing accountability mechanisms for legal and policy action, UNAIDS, UNDP, UN Women and OHCHR jointly organized a briefing of the CEDAW committee on the link between HIV and violence against women. Hide

61 countries and the European Union joined UN Women’s COMMIT to End Violence against Women initiative, a call for action for Governments to make new and concrete national commitments to end violence against women and girls. The commitments ranged from passing or improving laws, ratifying international conventions, to launching public awareness campaigns, providing safe houses or free hotline services and free legal aid to survivors, supporting education programmes that address gender stereotypes and violence, and increasing women in law enforcement, peacekeeping forces and frontline services. Hide

In October 2013, UN Women launched Voices against Violence, a pioneering co-educational and non-formal education curriculum on ending violence against women and girls, designed for various age groups ranging from 5 to 25 years, in partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It provides girls, boys, young women and young men with tools and expertise to understand the root causes of violence in their communities, to educate and involve their peers and communities to prevent such violence, and to learn about where to access support if they experience violence.Increasingly, UN Women is strengthening prevention interventions that include and also go beyond awareness-raising, to engage with schools, faith-based organizations, media and communities at large. In Mozambique for example, UN Women successfully advocated for the UNCT to adopt ending violence against women as one of two signature themes for the country and in partnership UNFPA and UNICEF, national institutions and civil society organizations developed and are implementing a comprehensive approach to prevent violence against women and girls in a total of five districts in 4 provinces, reaching opinion and community leaders and enlisting youth as agents for change in seven secondary schools. In India, UN Women contributed to prevention of trafficking in women and girls through the establishment of 40 Anti-Trafficking Vigilance Committees as well as to increasing the evidence base through research on various forms of VAW and strategies to address them. In Timor-Leste, UN Women was included in the curriculum reform reference group and provided inputs on school curricula and lesson materials related to VAW prevention and promotion of gender equality for potential integration in the Basic Education Curriculum. Hide

In 2013, twenty-one countries, with the support of UN Women, took the critical step in adopting laws, policies and plans that provide the authorizing environment for concrete action to be taken to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. For example, in Bolivia, after 10 years of advocacy by the women’s movement and with the support of UN Women, the Comprehensive Law to Guarantee Women a Life Free of Violence was enacted, recognizing 16 forms of abuse, establishing new criminal offenses and making provision for comprehensive prevention and response measures. Hide

UN agencies, including UN Women and UNFPA, supported Governments, including those of Nepal and the Pacific Islands, to prepare their national priorities for negotiations during CSW 57. UN Women also promoted the implementation of the CSW Agreed Conclusions in Fiji through the national EVAW Task Force. In preparation for the 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), ESCAP and UN Women jointly organized the “Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women”, 5-6 February 2013, in which senior-level representatives from 12 ESCAP Member States participated. The outcome of the meeting included recommendations on translating existing international legal and normative frameworks into effective national policy tools that address the obstacles and challenges in eliminating and preventing violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. Hide

In commemoration of International Women’s Day, ESCAP and UN Women organized an event on “Ending Violence against Women - Our Shared Responsibility” during which new research findings on men’s use of violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific were presented. The ILO Director General along government, workers' and employers' representatives participated in a panel debate with the theme “STOP Violence at work” (http://www.ilo.org/gender/Events/international-women-day/lang--en/index.htm). ESCWA hosted a roundtable discussion on GBV, during which the ESCWA Regional Appeal on GBV -- signed by 58 prominent Arab figures– was launched stressing the need for the active engagement of several segments of society in ending VAW. Hide

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. Hide

In Cambodia, with the support of UN Women, the 2nd National Action Plan to Prevent VAW has been drafted, with advocacy, capacity development, VAW costing and prevention being established as government priorities. A participatory mechanism for EVAW coordination in Cambodia has been also established, setting the ground for an integrated multi-sectoral approach. Hide

UN Women together with ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNODC, OHCHR and WHO supported the preparations for and successful conclusion of CSW 57. This included the convening of a high level side event with the Secretary General and the Heads of 11 UN agencies to discuss ending violence against women which resulted in a joint statement, available at: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/3/joint-statement-by-heads-of-un-agencies-on-ending-violence Hide

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. Hide