United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

In May 2008, UNESCO’s Division for Gender Equality chaired a side event on female genital mutilation, organized by the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children (IAC), in the context of the WHO World Health Assembly. Hide

UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector implemented a project in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, entitled “Training of female radio reporters to prevent violence” in association with the local NGO “Casa de la Mujer.” Two workshops were conducted with women and men on existing legislation against domestic violence, and forty 30-minute radio programmes (in various broadcasting formats) are being produced and will be broadcast by participating radio stations. Hide

UNESCO’s Culture Sector compiles and maintains a trafficking statistics database focusing on Asia and other regions, available on-line at:http://203.146.233.12/culture/WebTraffickingV2/. It has linked databases with information related to trafficking, rates of HIV/AIDS incidence, interventions and their coverage, and the distribution of at-risk populations (migration, population in sex work) to discover, record and map related trends. Hide

UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences Sector has undertaken a programme of research on women's rights for peace and security in post conflict democracies in Africa. Researchers from 11 countries of the Great Lake Region, Sierra Leone and South Africa submitted papers on violence against women and the relationship between women’s human rights, peace and security in post conflict context, as well as recommendations for the way forward to be addressed to policy- and decision-makers. Hide

UNESCO is working on a campaign to fight human trafficking in Africa. UNESCO’s flagship initiative of community multimedia centers (CMC) provides access to information and communication resources in the areas of women’s rights and development, for poor and marginalized women. UNESCO has over 130 CMCs in more than 25 countries. Hide

UNESCO is organizing awareness-raising activities on the elimination of all forms of violence against women, such as international conferences on the occasion of International Women’s Day (“Gender Equality – Make it your Business” in 2008) and other conferences on relevant topics. Hide

UNESCO carries out a series of studies which examine the family laws in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Hide

In January 2006, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Palestinian Ministry of Women’s Affairs, established a Palestinian Women’s Research and Documentation Center. The first of its kind in an Arab country, outside North Africa, this institution serves as both a documentation and resource centre and as an observatory. It is devoted to research on gender equality and human rights with an emphasis on women’s rights legislation, the causes and consequences of poverty among women, violence against women and women’s participation in political life. Hide

UNESCO collects and disseminates best practices in combating human trafficking in Africa in order to bridge the gap between knowledge and policy. Hide

UNESCO (Social and Human Science Section) undertakes research on the causes and social structures that foster violence against women. As part of its research activities for the ten-year review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, UNESCO produced a conceptual framework for qualitative and quantitative information on women’s empowerment. One of the 7 sets of indicators pertains to women’s bodily integrity and health, including data on the prevalence of female genital mutilation; sexual abuse of women; and physical abuse against women by an intimate partner. Hide