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

ESCAP and UN Women organized an advocacy event on “Ending Violence against Women and Girls” at the Sixth Asian and Pacific Population Conference on 18 September 2013 which focused on coordinated and multi-sectoral actions to prevent and end violence against women and girls in Asia and the Pacific. 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

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

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

The largest-ever cross-country study on men and violence in Asia and the Pacific11 was launched by P4P, in September 2013, providing critical new evidence on men’s use of violence in the region. A UN Women, UK Aid and UNFPA-supported study on individual, institutional, legal and policy responses to VAWG in Nepal, was launched on 10 December. Hide

For the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, UN Women led the UNiTE campaign’s global call for action to “Orange the World in 16 Days” and at least 49 countries reported “Orange the World” events and activities. The hashtag #orangeurworld was used by 13,360 users in 24,516 tweets, which reached 37.1 million followers and created 175.8 million impressions. The hashtag #16days was used by 36,422 users in 78,476 tweets, which reached 76.64 million followers and created 519.6 million impressions. This is a new record and exceeds by far last year’s numbers. UN Women’s social mobilization initiative, Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women, transitioned to social media platforms and penetrated online conversations with information and digital advocacy by actively engaging over 130,000 people on Facebook and Twitter and partnered with more than 900 civil society organizations. At regional level, under the leadership of UN Women, and in close collaboration with a number of agencies, the United Nations Country Teams have mobilized governments and civil society, women's and young people organizations, people from the world of art, culture and sports, the media, the private sector, faith-based organizations, women and men from diverse backgrounds around the same cause, to end violence against women and girls. Adherents to the SG Campaign include more than 20 State institutions in Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico; the States of Mexico and Morelos, and the Superior Justice Court of Chiapas (Mexico), the city of Quito (Ecuador), the Government of Almeria (Spain) and the Latin American Union of Municipalities (UIM). Regional institutions such as the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), the OAS Inter-American Commission on Women (CIM/OAS) and the Council of Ministers of Women of Central America (COMMCA), have also joined the SG’s campaign.The Asia Pacific UNiTE secretariat widened and deepened regional partnerships, including with youth, which were critical in the unprecedented expansion of Orange Day, a Campaign initiative which reached at least half a million people across the region in 2013. 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

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

The publication of a new methodology and a regional UN Women publication on VAW costing cemented UN Women’s technical leadership in this emerging area of research in the Asia Pacific region and have contributed to the decision by seven governments in the region to undertake new or additional VAW costing studies. Hide