Measures

UNHCR office in India and in cooperation with the government, in response to one of the recommendations from the Dialogues with refugee replaced paper refugee certificates with smart ID cards, resulting in enhanced protection and access to services. In refugee camps where UNHCR has SGBV programs, UNHCR and its partners ensured that 95% of known survivors received support services; in urban areas the support reached 87% of survivors. Hide

ESCWA has implemented the project on "Enhancing Capacities to Eradicate Violence against Women (VAW) through Networking of Local Knowledge Communities” in coordination with all other United Nations Regional Commissions, the United Nations Statistical Division (UNSD) and the former United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW) (now UN Women). This project addresses the need to strengthen the capacity of the countries to regularly and appropriately measure violence against women in respective regions. Effective policies and programmes to eradicate violence against women need to be planned on the basis of extensive knowledge. Hide

ESCWA reported that an e-learning course delivered by the Development Account Project entitled “Measurement of Violence against Women through Statistical Surveys” was conducted from 26 November to 10 December 2011. The e-learning course focused on the following objectives: 1) enhancing knowledge of the conceptual understanding of pervasiveness of violence against women (VAW), in addition to increasing awareness about the available sources and use and limitation of statistics on VAW; 2) enhancing understanding of the importance and use of the core indicators recommended by the Statistical Commission; 3) enhancing the understanding on how to use the UNECE module as part of a questionnaire developed for a dedicated survey; 4) being able to develop, adapt, translate and pre-test a questionnaire for a survey on VAW; 5) being able to develop an appropriate training curriculum for training of field staff and knowing how to use training materials as developed for the UNECE module; 6) enhancing knowledge on the role of stakeholders to ensure use of statistical data on VAW. The training targeted persons working in different ministries in the ESCWA region. Hide

During the 5th session of the Committee on Women held from 19 to 21 December 2011 at the UN house in Lebanon, a session was dedicated to discussing the issue of violence against women (VAW), and the main findings and recommendations of ESCWA’s Regional Study on Violence against women included: 1) the enactment of special laws to criminalize the acts of VAW ; 2) provision of services for the protection of victims of VAW and their psychological, social and physical rehabilitation; and 3) initiation of nation-wide campaigns to raise awareness about the negative effects of VAW and sensitize the public at large. Hide

In June 2011, the International Labour Conference adopted the Convention No. 189 and Recommendation No. 201 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. The new standards are a strong recognition of the economic and social value of domestic work and a call for action to address the existing exclusions of domestic workers from labour and social protection. Article 5 of Convention No. 189 calls for measures to ensure that domestic workers enjoy effective protection against all forms of abuse, harassment and violence. Hide

Following the Pilot/Pre-testing survey on violence against women, carried out within the work programme of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) during 2011, UNICRI, in partnership with IPSOS and HEUNI, is currenlty working on the FRA Violence Against Women Survey, involving 27 EU countries and 1 accessing country, Croatia. The survey will consist of 1,500 standardised interviews in each country concerning experiences of violence against women. This is the first survey carried out in the 28 countries. The data provided by the survey will be crucial for comparative analysis, for scientifically based information on the extension of violence against women and for developing and evaluating legislation and policies to fight violence against women. The project will end in November 2012. Hide

DPI’s UN Radio produced a variety of programmes in the six UN official languages plus Kiswahili and Portuguese on violence against women, including features on abuses suffered by women in conflict and post-conflict situations. Hide

The Joint Human Rights Office of MONUSCO (Democratic Republic of Congo - DRC) issued special reports on sexual violence notably in the DRC. It is also implementing a program to increase access to justice for victims and witnesses, including through technical and financial assistance to local non-governmental organizations to enable them to provide free legal advice to victims of sexual violence, as well as support to prosecutors and judicial investigators. Hide

In Sudan, the Human Rights Section of UNAMID organized workshops addressing sexual gender-based violence in West Darfur; it has developed and install billboards related to sexual gender-based violence around South Darfur; it has produced leaflets on the mandate, role and services of the Family and Child Protection Units; and it has trained State actors on human rights and criminal investigation procedures. Hide

The ECA, through its African Center for Gender and Social Development (ACGSD), has developed the Follow-up Strategy of the Beijing +15 Regional Review, which defines an approach to operationalise the Banjul Declaration as well as those outcomes of the 54th session of the Commission on the Status of Women that relate specifically to Africa. The strategy identifies seven strategic focus areas, one of which is violence against women. Key recommendations include the need to adopt and implement a multi-sectoral plan to address gender-based violence, within the framework of the United Nations Secretary-General’s “UNiTE to End Violence against Women and Girls” campaign; as well as ensuring the enactment and strengthening of laws to address it. Hide