Measures

UNDP engaged in a number of prevention, advocacy and awareness-raising initiatives throughout the year. Efforts included: working with Ministry of Justice and women’s groups in Niamey, Niger to reach 1,500 young people through their youth groups; collaborating with CSOs and the Family Support Units in Sierra Leone to reach 8,022 school chidren and their teachers from 54 schools; awareness raising campaigns targeting community leaders, youth and teachers in primary schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo; initiatives using social mobilization techniques and internet platforms to reach broad audiences in Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, Serbia, India and Cambodia; monitoring of social media platforms under the P4P programme in the Asia Pacific Region to draw practical lessons from the campaigns in New Delhi, Hanoi and Beijing; development of the first ever comprehensive knowledge space dedicated to the Goverhnment’s efforts on violence against women; and continued operation of the “Community Legal Empowerment for Women” clinics in Sri Lanka to improve legal awareness on sexual and gender based violence and rights related to marriage, divorce and maintenance. Hide

UN-HABITAT, in collaboration with UNICEF and UN-Women, developed a global programme “Safe and Sustainable Cities for All”. During 2012, the programme was launched in eight pilot cities ─ Greater Beirut (Lebanon), Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Metro Manila (Philippines), Marrakesh (Morocco), Nairobi (Kenya), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), San José (Costa Rica) and Tegucigalpa (Honduras). Some city-level results of the programme include: a rapid assessment in 7 neighborhoods in Beirut, revealing interrelated challenges of poverty, overcrowding, and lack of safe public spaces for women, girls and children; the establishment of a permanent Safe Cities Committee within the Municipality in Marrakech which helped to increase resources for the Municipal Committee on Equity and Gender Equality; engagement of community members in participatory mapping of violence and safety conditions for women and girls in nine communities, in Rio; dialogues with informal settlers in Mandaluyong City, Manila, to design collaborative interventions and mainstream ‘safety’ into the city’s planning and budgeting processes.Some results of the global rogramme on “Safe Cities free from violence for women and girls”, led by UN Women, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, include the approval of an Amendment to the City Ordinance on Eliminating Violence against Women by the Quito Municipality to also target violence in public spaces; Safe Cities’ models and approaches are being integrated into a new government scheme in New Delhi aimed at enhancing women’s safety and policing services; the Mayor's office in Kigali is advocating for Safe Cities measures to be included in its city plan and budget and for legal reforms to also address sexual harassment and violence in public spaces; mainstreaming of Women’s Safety Audits into the planning processes of the Egyptian Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development.The Plan International, Women in Cities International and UN-Habitat joint programme “Because I am a Girl – Urban Programme” was launched in Hanoi (Vietnam), Delhi (India), Cairo (Egypt), Kampala (Uganda) and Lima (Peru). A rapid situational assessment (RSA) has been conducted to assess safety of girls in each of the five cities.UN-Habitat and local authorities of the Kupang and Belu districts in Indonesia, spearheaded a “Local-to-Local Dialogue“ for women, aimed at improving responses by local authorities to crises impacting women and empowering women, both from ex-refugees and host communities. UN-Habitat is supported by the Huairou Commission and by the local NGO CIS Timor. Such dialogues also offer the opportunity to exchange experiences among different grassroots female leaders from other post-conflict areas, in Southeast Asia. By supporting the role of organized women’s leadership in community development processes, the “Local-to-Local Dialogue provides a foundation to prevent and reduce existing practices of discrimination, marginalization and violence against women in post-conflict areas. Hide

DPI continues to raise awareness globally on the UN’s efforts to address violence against women through various information dissemination mechanisms, including: articles published in the delegate; activities undertaken through the United Nations Information Centres across the globe (e.g. Azerbaijan, Ghana and Panama); the Messengers for Peace programme and Chelize Theron’s advocacy on the issue; publications (e.g. “The Future We Want"; "Involving the Forgotten: Widows and Global Sustainable Development," and "Delivering Justice"); the intra/internet (i.e. six stories on iseek and the dedicated section on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, with relevant informational links and social media tools on the UN Calendar of Observances: Making a Difference); through UN visitor services (12 groups exploring women’s rights and violence and 3 sexual violence); in addition to the UN4U programme that reaches out to NYC schools having involved 62 UN staff members in 2012. Hide

ECLAC, with the support of the UNFPA, has finalized a proposal for a regional training curriculum on gender and security and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security. The proposal incorporates regional ECLAC research findings on the progress achieved in relation to the topic, as well as on the training needs of different governmental institutions. The proposal was presented in a workshop at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago (27-28 November 2012). Hide

In Guatemala, UNAIDS, with the government and civil society, jointly developed the National Action Framework with a focus on gender-based violence, which has been further incorporated into the operational plan of Guatemala’s National HIV Strategy. Hide

UNAIDS is supporting a number of actions to highlight the link between violence against women and HIV, as well as the role of the HIV response in overcoming violence against women. These include Country consultations led by the Women Won’t Wait campaign; and a high level panel during the CSW on the linkages between violence against women and HIV. Hide

The interagency initiative Together for Girls and UNAIDS co-hosted an event to commemorate World AIDS Day and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, focusing on the progress made toward addressing gender-based violence and the interface with HIV and on the leadership within the HIV and gender communities to raise awareness and increase access to prevention and care services. UNAIDS also supported Lesotho to use the Campaign on 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence to raise public awareness. UNAIDS supported Sri Lanka to integrate awreness-raising of HIV into its national advocacy and communication under the UNiTE campaign to end violence.The inter-agency intiitative Together for Girls brought greater visibility to empowering women and girls in the context of HIV at the International AIDS Society AIDS 2012 meeting in Washington DC, where the partnership was able to make the connection between child abuse, gender inequality and HIV. Hide

UNAIDS and DPKO collaborate in implementing the SRC 1983, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo. AIDS programmes are helping address sexual and gender-based violence, sensitise perpetrators, and promote integration of human rights standards in national legal and policy frameworks. http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2012/september/20120926hivandsecurity/ Hide

UNAIDS, together with UN Peacekeepers, distributed inflatable solar-powered lights to women and families, in Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia and South Sudan, and raised the issue of sexual and gender-based violence against women and HIV. http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2012/november/20121127prshinealight/ Hide

During the reporting period, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) has conducted three cources of Inter-institutional Training Course on Combating Illicit Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives (IITC), which contributes to enhancing the capacity of law enforcement and legal practitioners to prevent armed violence, including against women. Participants came from across the Caribbean, as well as Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. In addition, UNLIREC launched in New York the publication “Forces of Change: Profiles of Latin American and Caribbean Women in Combating Illicit Trafficking in Small Arms”, at a First Committee side event “Women Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Arms Control”, hosted by the Honorable Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Hide