United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

As part of its celebration of International Women’s Day 2008, UNESCO‘s Division for Gender Equality, in collaboration with WHO, hosted the première of the documentary “Mutilation, Women’s Cries”, by the French-Gabonese association Kerciné. A UNESCO video spot to raise awareness and combat violence against women entitled “Being Fed Up” was posted online in April 2008 and is available at:http://www.unesco-ci.org/cgi-bin/media/page.cgi?g=Detailed/128.html;d=1 Hide

In May 2008, UNESCO’s Division for Gender Equality chaired a side event on female genital mutilation, organized by the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), in the context of the WHO World Health Assembly. Hide

UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector implemented a project in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, entitled “Training of female radio reporters to prevent violence” in association with the local NGO “Casa de la Mujer.” Two workshops were conducted with women and men on existing legislation against domestic violence, and forty 30-minute radio programmes (in various broadcasting formats) are being produced and will be broadcast by participating radio stations. Hide

UNESCO’s Culture Sector compiles and maintains a trafficking statistics database focusing on Asia and other regions, available on-line at:http://203.146.233.12/culture/WebTraffickingV2/. It has linked databases with information related to trafficking, rates of HIV/AIDS incidence, interventions and their coverage, and the distribution of at-risk populations (migration, population in sex work) to discover, record and map related trends. Hide

UNESCO is working on a campaign to fight human trafficking in Africa. UNESCO’s flagship initiative of community multimedia centers (CMC) provides access to information and communication resources in the areas of women’s rights and development, for poor and marginalized women. UNESCO has over 130 CMCs in more than 25 countries. Hide

UNESCO is organizing awareness-raising activities on the elimination of all forms of violence against women, such as international conferences on the occasion of International Women’s Day (“Gender Equality – Make it your Business” in 2008) and other conferences on relevant topics. Hide

UNESCO carries out a series of studies which examine the family laws in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Hide

In the area of education, UNESCO has produced peace education kits and training in non-violent conflict resolution, which also aim to reduce violence against women (e.g: Education for a Culture of Peace in a Gender Perspective (training manual) in English (2001) and French (2003).UNESCO seeks to promote gender equality in primary and secondary education through curriculum reform. On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, UNESCO organized an International Round Table “School related gender-based violence (SRGBV): role and responsibility of stakeholders” (Nov 2006). As a follow up to the conference, SRGBV is being integrated in the work undertaken in Western and Central Africa in the context of UN Girls’ Education Initiative. A module on SRGBV was added to the training of trainers guide developed by UNESCO on the mainstreaming of gender in education systems for the 6 countries of the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO).In the area of communication and information, UNESCO created a digital library, in Kazakh and Russian, in Kazakhstan. The library gives women free access to databases which contain more than 1000 legal documents related to human rights issues. In the area of culture, and within the context of its project “Culturally appropriate approaches to HIV/AIDS”, UNESCO is undertaking activities to raise public awareness on traditional attitudes and practices that are harmful to women’s health or put them at risk of infection, such as domestic violence (notably in Central Asia and the Caucasus). UNESCO works in rural areas in Kyrgyzstan to raise awareness about bride abduction among rural communities as a violation of women’s rights.UNESCO participates in international and regional conferences/campaigns, including the Celebration of International Women’s Day 2007 and 2005 at UNESCO Headquarters, which focused respectively on “Women peacemakers” (http://www.unesco.org/women/iwd2007) and “Building a More Secure Future for Women Reporters” , focusing on the role of the media in the elimination of violence against women. UNESCO also coordinates International Years and distributes Prizes and Awards that acknowledge men’s and women’s contribution to the fight against violence in all its forms, including violence against women. UNESCO develops gender-sensitive information, education and communication materials and radio programmes on violence against women, such as “STOP This Violence!” in Kenya, and minority language radio programming for trafficking prevention in Mekong region, in China). Hide

In January 2006, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs, established a Palestinian Women’s Research and Documentation Center. The first of its kind in an Arab country, outside North Africa, this institution serves as both a documentation and resource centre and as an observatory. It is devoted to research on gender equality and human rights with an emphasis on women’s rights legislation, the causes and consequences of poverty among women, violence against women and women’s participation in political life. Hide

UNESCO collects and disseminates best practices in combating human trafficking in Africa in order to bridge the gap between knowledge and policy. Hide