United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

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 continues to lead a global knowledge management initiative to address violence against women and girls, reaching 1,428,563 visitors from 232 countries and territories in four years. By the end of 2013, the Virtual Knowledge Centre (http://www.endvawnow.org) provided 11 programming modules in English, French and Spanish covering various sectors (Health, Justice and Security); settings (Safe Cities and Conflict/Post-conflict/Emergency); and interventions (Shelter, Legislative Development and Reform; Working with Men and Boys; Monitoring and Evaluation), with a tools database of over 950 tools in more than 65 languages. Hide

UNFPA and UN Women launched and rolled out the Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls subject to Violence. This Joint Programme is aimed at responding to the critical gaps and challenges that limit expanded access to quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls victims/survivors of violence. With a particular focus on developing countries, the programme aims to achieve greater access for all women and girls who have experienced violence to a set of essential quality and coordinated multi-sectoral services. Under this initiative, a global experts meeting was convened, also in collaboration with WHO, in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2013 to reach an agreement on the set of essential health services that are required to be provided to women and girls vulnerable to or that have been subjected to violence. Hide

Applying Social Media Tools for the Prevention of Gender-based Violence: Lessons learned from social media communication campaigns to prevent gender-based violence in India, China and Viet Nam’; was launched and disseminated by P4P in 2013. This resource consolidates learning from the P4P initiative ‘Engaging Young Men through Social Media for the Prevention of Violence against Women’. “Let’s Talk Men 2.0” film series7 launched in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka with accompanying tools for discussion facilitators. Hide

In December 2010, OHCHR and UN Women were tasked by the Secretary-General’s Policy Committee to develop a Guidance Note on reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence. The Guidance Note, which was informed by a study jointly commissioned by OHCHR and UN Women, provides policy and operational guidance for Member States, UN agencies, development actors, and civil society organizations on the topic, and will be finalized in the first quarter of 2014. Hide

The Regional UN Women Campaign ‘El valiente no es violento’ was launched in Quito, Ecuador, aimed at raising awareness among especially young men on ending VAW, and has been further launched at the national level in Cuba, Argentina, Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela and Nicaragua. Hide

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

In 2012 UN Women supported data collection efforts in Uruguay, Lao PDR, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Timor Leste, and Viet Nam – looking at causes, prevalence, and specific types of violence that require tailored interventions. For example, in Bosnia and Herzegovina UN Women, UNFPA, the Gender Equality Agency and BiH Statistics Agency conducted a first ever Prevalence Survey on domestic violence and violence against women. In Mexico, the study Femicide Violence: Characteristics, Trends and New Expressions at the state level 1985-2010, in collaboration with INMUJERES, the Congress and Academia was produced. In Viet Nam, UN Women commissioned a costing study estimating the economic impact of domestic violence against women at the household and macroeconomic levels and a report on Masculinities and GBV in collaboration with UNFPA. In Nepal, UN Women with UNFPA and the Enabling State Programme/ Department for International Development (ESP/ DFID) commissioned a study to track GBV cases to gain a better understanding of how the country’s systems respond to reported cases. Hide

The Violence Against Children Survey part of the Together for Girls Initiative (including UNICEF, UN Women, UNFPA, UNAIDS and WHO as partners) has collected prevalence of and circumstances surrounding violence, targeting females and males aged 13-24, and has already been completed in Kenya, Haiti and Zimbambwe. Results were released in Zimbabwe and Kenya, in May and Novemer 2012, respectively. The results will be released in Haiti, in early 2013. Hide