United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

In 2007, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, launched a six-country programme designed to build community capacity to prevent sexual and gender-based violence and to build peace in post-conflict countries in Afghanistan, Haiti, Liberia, Rwanda, Timor Leste and Uganda. In Southeast Asia and the Pacific, as elsewhere, UNIFEM, as part of joint UN efforts, supported campaign efforts on ending violence against women. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported initiatives for better data collection and national statistical monitoring on gender-based violence, including in Afghanistan, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, and Venezuela. In Afghanistan, UNIFEM supported the development of a database to collect and track service-based data to monitor the ‘Strategic Framework for Eliminating Violence against Women’. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, prepared reports of the Secretary-General to the sixty-second session of the General Assembly on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women (A/62/201) and violence against women migrant workers (A/62/177); as well as reports of the Secretary-General to the fifty-second session of the Commission on the Status of Women on ending female genital mutilation (E/CN.6/2008/3) and forced marriage of the girl child (E/CN.6/2008/4).In follow–up to General Assembly resolution 61/143, DAW, in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN ECE) and the United Nations Statistics Division, organized an expert group meeting on “Indicators to measure violence against women”, Geneva, Switzerland, October 2007. DAW and UNSD are supporting a joint dialogue of the Commission on the Status of Women and the Statistical Commission, on 28 February 2008, to discuss the outcomes and proposed indicators of the expert group meeting. DAW has initiated work for the development of a coordinated database on violence against women, as requested by the General Assembly (A/RES/61/143, para. 19). Hide

An awareness-raising pamphlet for women prisoners in Afghanistan using drawings and cartoons is being published in cooperation with UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, . The pamphlet aims to inform women in prison about their rights and takes into account newly approved regulations of penitentiary law. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) and Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) to establish a gender working group in the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Investigation section. WFP supported the establishment of two Gender Desks in the National Police and in the Ministry of Defence, in Rwanda. The primary task of these units is to assist Concerned National Institutions and other stakeholders to address issues related to gender-based violence. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, compiled information about recent activities of the entities of the United Nations system in follow-up to General Assembly resolutions 61/143 and 62/133, to complement the Inventory of United Nations system activities on violence against women, which was uploaded on the DAW website in July 2007. Hide

In August 2007, INSTRAW, now part of UN Women, in collaboration with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), hosted an expert workshop on gender and security sector reform, which brought together a number of experts in different areas of the security sector (police, military, border management, private security companies, etc.) to discuss issues such as gender training, gender mainstreaming, and an appropriate response to physical and sexual violence against women. Hide

UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, in partnership with national counterparts, ministries, civil society and UN sister agencies, provided support for the development of national strategies and plans in Albania, Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.Under the UNIFEM-supported Safe Cities Programme in the Southern Cone of Latin America, a protocol is under development to guide the Urban Municipal Guard in Rosario, Argentina, in responding to gender-based violence, which is stimulating policy reforms in Santa Clara, Chile, and lessons are being shared with local authorities in Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Hide

In China, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, support to the Xuzhou Domestic Violence Shelter is being considered for nation-wide scale-up by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Hide

In Rwanda, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, supported the training of over 2,000 defence force members and local leaders and support was provided to the national police in drafting training manuals for investigating sexual and gender-based violence. Hide