United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

In the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), UN Women has trained Police Family Protection Units (FPUs) officers (level I and II) on violence against women (VAW) cases and has supported them in the development of their first strategy, standard operating procedures and minimum guidelines for the establishment of the Units. An initial group of six Palestinian judges have also been targeted in order to support the development of their capacity to deal with VAW cases during trial. Technical support to the Palestinian Bar Association has also been initiated in order to develop a specialized group of lawyers capable to deal with and legally represent cases of VAW in a gender sensitive manner. Hide

In partnership with DPKO and the Office of the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, UN Women developed scenario-based pre-deployment training for military peacekeepers to prevent and respond to sexual violence, which were tested in several troop contributing countries, such as Nepal where 466 army personnel were trained. Both the Security Council, in resolution 1960, and the Secretary-General, in his annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, have encouraged member states to incorporate these modules into their regular training for peace operations. Hide

The UN Women Universal Access to Critical Services initiative aims to achieve access for all women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence to at least a core set of services for their emergency and immediate needs, within the next ten years, in a significant number of countries of the world. It addresses a clear implementation and accountability gap in the dearth of State mapping, benchmarking and monitoring for expansion of services for universal access, and promotes an evidence-based, results-driven approach to policy making similar to that of the Millenium Development Goals. Hide

In the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), UN Women has continued to support the multi-purpose Centre for women victims of violence by assisting in the development of formats for the data collection. Hide

From 13 to 14 September 2011, the Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (RCM TWG-GEEW) (co-chaired by ESCAP and UN Women) organised and hosted the Inaugural Meeting of the Regional Advisory Group on Women and Peace and Security, during which the terms of reference were adopted and priority areas for action and support were discussed. The outcome was shared in an open session (“Priorities for Implementing United Nations Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in the Asia-Pacific region”). In addition, at its 2 September 2011 meeting, the RCM TWG-GEEW agreed to establish a UNiTE Working Group under its auspices, which is now working to implement the UNiTE Campaign in the Asia-Pacific region. Hide

UN Women manages the project Pacific Regional Facility Fund in Support of Organisations and Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women (EVAW), which is a regional ‘basket fund’ to support a small grants facility for Pacific Island organisations and actions to eliminate VAW. Hide

In Nepal, UN Women advocated with concerned ministries for allocating budget for responding to gender-based violence (GBV). As a result, specific programmes and budgets were allocated by the government for ending GBV in fiscal year 2011-2012. In addition, GBV has been enlisted as one of the sub-indicators for ascertaining gender responsive budgeting (GRB). Hide

UN Women Virtual Knowledge Centre (VKC) to End Violence against Women conducted its first global technical webinar on Costing the Implementation of Violence against Women Laws and Policies for United Nations and government colleagues undertaking or embarking on similar work. Hide

UN Women supported the Afghanistan Ministry of Women’s Affairs to collect data on violence against women (VAW) and set up a web-based database and coding system on VAW. UN Women and UNDP supported an assessment of gender-based violence (GBV) Prevalence, Trends, Legal Recourse, Impact Focusing on Conflict and Transitional Period in ten selected districts of Terai, Nepal. GBV was found to be widely prevalent during the conflict and the transition phase. Recommendations were made to various government and development agencies and non-governmental organizations. Hide

UN Women has expanded the resources available through the Virtual Knowledge Centre (VKC) to End Violence against Women to include a database of 800 tools in 60 languages, including in-depth programming modules on campaigns, health, justice and security sectors. Hide