United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Through its ongoing work with parliamentarians, women’s machineries and the women’s movement, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, continued to support efforts for legislative reforms including a law on domestic violence in Timor-Leste. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with UNODC, to implement trafficking programmes in South Asia. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, now part of UN Women, prepared reports of the Secretary General to the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women (A/65/208), and trafficking in women and girls (A/65/209).On 11 March 2010, the Commission on the Status of Women held an interactive panel discussion on the theme “Unite to End Violence against Women”. A Moderator’s summary of the panel is available on the DAW website at: https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing15/ievents.html. Hide

The Handbook for legislation on violence against women (UNDAW/DESA, 2010) was published and its final version is available on the website of DAW, now part of UN Women, https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/v-handbook.htm. Copies of the Handbook are available in Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish. DAW and the Centre for Women at the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), held a sub-regional capacity-building workshop in Beirut, Lebanon on legislative frameworks to address violence against women for Government officials, Parliamentarians and representatives of non-governmental organizations from 7 countries in the Middle East. The objective of the workshop was to contribute to the adoption of comprehensive legislation on violence against women and its effective implementation. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, participated in UNCT programmes and other inter-agency initiatives in many countries, including: the South Asia Anti-Trafficking Think Tank (formed in partnership with UNODC) and the Amal Coalition in Gaza. UNIFEM supported advocacy and survivor support networks in Algeria, Argentina, Morocco and Uruguay, as well as men’s networks in Cameroon and Mozambique. UNIFEM awareness-raising support included: a workshop on CEDAW and gender-based violence in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (with the Open Society Institute); a South African sexual harassment campaign; and various events for the 16 Days of activism against gender violence campaign. Hide

DAW, now part of UN  Women, finalized the report of the expert group meeting on legislation to address harmful practices. The report sets out recommendations for legislation to address harmful practices against women, with particular attention to female genital mutilation, so called “honour” crimes, acid throwing, stove burning, and harmful practices related to marriage.

DAW, in cooperation with ECA, convened two multi-stakeholder workshops at sub-regional level, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in December 2009, bringing together representatives from 12 countries to support and accelerate legislative reform on violence against women.

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UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, provided support to civil society and women’s organisations for initiatives, including training for Pakistani civil society groups on masculinities; and developing a high school curriculum on violence against women in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, coordinated and supported the launch of the first regional campaign with UN sister agencies in Guatemala City (November 2009), in which ECLAC participated; advanced inter-agency consultations with multiple stakeholders in Africa and Asia; secured a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment for the Campaign related to the UN Trust Fund resource mobilization benchmark; and launched Phase II of the Say No - UNiTE campaign aiming for 100,000 actions by March 2010. Hide

Issues # 5 and 6 of Words to Action, DAW’s (now part of UN Women) quarterly newsletter on violence against women, was produced with feature articles on sexual violence in conflict settings, and the vital role of CEDAW in eliminating violence against women. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, produced an updated brochure on the Secretary-General’s database on violence against women in all official United Nations languages. Hide