In June 2025, UNODC organized an event in Brussels on “Tech-enabled Threats and Solutions: The Two Sides of a Coin” for officials from the European Commission and EU Member States. The discussion included a focus on technology-facilitated gender-based violence and the ways in which technologies are exploited to cause harm, as well as technological and policy innovations to prevent and address such violence.
In March 2025, UNODC convened a workshop in Ecuador to support a pilot of the multi-stakeholder in-depth femicide review methodology with counterparts from the Ministry of Women and Human Rights, the prosecution service, the judiciary, the Ministry of the Interior and the National Police. In South Africa, UNODC continued to support the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation within the Presidency in advancing the policy framework for institutionalizing femicide reviews, including through consultations with government and civil society stakeholder
In January and February 2025, UNODC conducted training workshops on the use of non-custodial measures in Bangladesh, in partnership with the Judicial Administration Training Institute, delivering training to criminal justice professionals on gender-responsive alternatives to imprisonment in line with the Tokyo Rules and the Bangkok Rules.
In May 2025, UNODC facilitated a national workshop in Johannesburg on conceptualizing a research methodology for undertaking femicide reviews in South Africa. The workshop brought together researchers from governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations, including the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Statistics South Africa, the Human Sciences Research Council, the Institute for Security Studies and the Pan-African Collective for Evidence.
In June 2025, UNODC delivered a presentation at a side event of the 59th session of the Human Rights Council on “Protection from Domestic Violence: Breaking Cycles, Building Peace”. The event explored domestic violence from different perspectives, with UNODC highlights its work on criminal justice responses and the preventive potential of the femicide review methodology.
UNODC conducted a legislative analysis of 76 jurisdictions worldwide on firearms-related gender-based violence against women, the findings of which were presented at the plenary meeting of GREVIO in June 2025. The analysis examined how domestic legal frameworks address the intersection of firearms possession and gender-based violence, including domestic violence protection orders, firearms removal provisions and risk assessment mechanisms.
At the request of UN Women, UNODC prepared a paper on “Access to justice for women and girls alleged or recognized as having infringed criminal law” for an expert group meeting help in September 2025, in preparation for the 70th session of the CSW. UNODC also participated as an observer. The meeting involved over 30 internationally renowned experts who prepared agreed conclusions on the priority theme.
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence is a rapidly growing form of abuse that disproportionately affects women and girls, including human rights defenders, journalists, and politicians, and increasingly intersects with offline harm. Spotlight Initiative engages with this issue through knowledge-sharing, capacity building, and support to country-level programming responses.
Femicide represents the most extreme manifestation of gender-based violence and requires dedicated legal, institutional, data, and prevention responses. Spotlight Initiative addresses femicide through integrated approaches spanning legal reform, data generation, survivor services, and social norm change, with particular depth in Latin America where prevalence and institutional attention to the issue are both high.
Sustained, systemic change to end violence against women and girls requires governments, civil society, implementing partners, and UN Country Teams to have the knowledge, skills, and resources to prevent violence and respond effectively. Spotlight Initiative makes strategic investments in training and capacity development to strengthen institutional performance and deepen accountability across these sectors.