United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
UN Women undertakes several measures to address sexual violence in conflict situations related to the UN Women workforce such as:
- Message of prohibition of sexual misconduct and SEA and importance of reporting repeatedly communicated by ED.
- Since February 2017, UN Women has provided training to personnel in over 20 field offices and HQ sections.
- Launch of UN Women’s initiative “Take a Stand” in 2016, which provides guidance not only on how to report cases but also on services available to the affected staff member – from telecommuting, to salary advances, to advanced leave requests, and assisting in facilitating their access to safe and secure spaces.
- Established a network of focal points on SEA in headquarters and its Regional Offices from whom staff can request guidance on reporting allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse.
- Ensuring that where there are ANY allegations of SEA or other sexual misconduct committed by UN Women personnel or partners, they are promptly referred for investigation.
- Ensuring that alleged victims are referred to the appropriate service providers for protection, medical care and support.
- Collaborating with the Secretary-General’s Victims’ Rights Advocate Ms. Jane Connors on sexual exploitation and abuse and victims’ assistance.
DRC
Support granted to the government for the elaboration of the National Strategic Development Plan 2017-2021. United Nations agencies are engaged in the process of developing UNDAF 2019-2022.
SENEGAL
UN Women through the Ministry of Women, Family and Gender supports the Government of Senegal to reduce gender-based violence and to care for GBV victims for social reintegration, through the implementation of a multisectoral approach to violence prevention.
CABO VERDE
Strengthened capacities of civil society organization and men alliances for the implementation of the GBV Law and gender equality initiatives was another important component of UNW support to contribute to better an approach in fighting GBV. Cabo Verde has been witnessing the increasing of men’s engagement on fighting gender-based violence, by promoting a positive masculinity. White Ribbon Association – Cabo Verde has been the leader in promoting gender equality through positive masculinity focus on fighting to end violence against women and girls in Cabo Verde many of their members are part of the Government Rehabilitation Program for Men Offenders of GBV (created in 2012 with UN Women’s support). In the same line, UNW has also provided technical and financial support to the assessment of the implementation status of the programme, contributing to the systematization of lessons learned and good practices of the programme, and to the formulation of concrete recommendations for the elaboration of the next phase of the programme.
CAMEROON
Unwomen Cameroon work alongside with the ministry of gender and more than 300 stakeholders in different worshop to developed and adopte the GBV national Strategy, and the National plan on FGM). And the ministry of justice to train magistrate and to look into gender aspect in the new penal code previously adopted.
LIBERIA
UN Women Liberia is supporting the Ministry of Gender, Children & Social Protection in the development of a revised National Plan of Action for the Prevention and Management of Gender Based Violence. The initial plan covered the period 2006 – 2011 Gender Based Violence National Action Plan.
The Revised National Gender Policy is undergoing some minor review for adoption.
NIGER
With the support of the Ministry for the Advancement of Women and Child Protection UN Women, the UN office implements activities within the framework of the National gender policy, the national strategy to combat GBV, for the promotion of women's rights, gender equality and better management of GBV survivors.
DRC
Strengthening of the capacities of several sectoral ministry officials (gender, health, justice, interior, defense) and NGOs in several areas, especially results-based management, protocols for dealing with sexual violence, forensic expertise, etc.
SENEGAL
In Senegal, sector ministry staff benefited from capacity building on GBV. Women leaders, young people through cultural and sports associations and local communities through committees to combat violence.
CABO VERDE
The continuous support provided in training capacities resulted in an increased capacity of key players, namely the police, the justice sector and the civil society organizations in implementing specific activities and actions in alignment with the recommendations of the conducted evaluation of the law implementation, namely spread awareness activities, assessment of the Rehabilitation Program of Men Offenders of GBV and the integration of GBV data and information in the information system of the operational management of the Ministry of Internal Administration.
MALI
UN Women trained 17 young Slam artists, who in turn reinforced the knowledge of 180 young students, girls and boys, who wrote and proclaimed poetic texts on GBV prevention and prevention during a slam contest in Bamako. A pool of 48 police officers was trained on the prevention and management of GBV survivors. 30 men from the media, the written and spoken press benefited from capacity building to raise awareness for prevention and report GBV cases to raise awareness among the population.
The support of the national police in the fight against GBV has been strengthened through a validated action plan that clearly defines the intervention strategy and results by 2020.
CAMEROON
UNW Cameroon training police officers. The capacity and the level of ownership of police forces as a primary protection actor on violence against women issues has significantly increased in 2017. Ministry of gender staff working in the call center/GBV mobile Units had also been trained while magistrate of the ministry of justice had also been trained on GBV principles.
LIBERIA
Liberia: Capacity building for national institutions with training conducted for 83 Women and Children Protection Officers, 65 prosecutors, city solicitors and court officials and 81 health workers.
NIGER
Representatives of sectoral ministries, state institutions, men and women in the media (even a declaration of commitment for the promotion of women's rights in Niger), local authorities have benefited from capacity building of the UN WOMEN office on GBV, gender and the promotion of women's rights.
Jordan CO
The UNCT in Jordan - under the leadership of UN Women, in collaboration with the Jordanian National Commission for Women and in partnership with the civil society and members of the international community launched the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence national campaign under the theme ‘Too young to marry’. Key highlights include:
- More than 1,374 people directly engaged in activities organized by UN Women– the majority of which were youth and those living outside the capital;
- around 350 events were organized in the country during the campaign, generating increased interest and discussions on the issue from different perspectives in participatory approach.
- 3.9 million users reached on social media through the various hashtags and social media content used. 375,349 social media users were reached only during the ‘orange hour’ which marked the beginning of the campaign on 25 Nov 2017 (hashtag ‘16daysjo’ trending on Twitter).
- Original song by The Voice winner Nidaa Sharara reached half a million views on Youtube.
- Systematic engagement of local-based initiatives, media professionals, youth movements and members of the international community.
- 3 policy papers presented during the dedicated event organized with judges and justice sector professionals.
Morocco MCO
UN Women strengthened its support to CSOs and national partners’ initiatives in the context of the UNiTE campaign. A focus was given to raise the awareness of boys and men through 11 initiatives that took place during the UNITE SG’s campaign : the launching event with the UNCT (orange balloons), 5 projects / activities were developed with CSOs for dedicated and intensified awareness-raising efforts during or close to the 16 Days of activism campaign (Aquarium, Zanka Bla Violence, ARMCDH, AMDF, Printemps de la Dignité) , 2 partnerships engaging the main written, tv and radio media for a 16-day coverage of the campaign (EcoMedias, 2M SOREAD), a digital awareness-raising campaign on UN Women Maghreb twitter account and UN Women Arabic Twitter and Facebook accounts and a communication campaign through weekly videos around the slogan « Because I am a man » that succeeded in reaching over 500K likes, shares and likes on Facebook alone and more than 32% of the audience share on TV broadcast. Three awareness-raising workshops on women’s human rights and gender-based stereotypes were held in three different cities towards youth (in a high-school (29 Dec), a fine arts institute (13 Dec) and a business and management school (26 Dec)) through the use of cartoons to initiate debate around these issues.
In 2017, UN Women Algeria used social networks to launch its largest 16 days EVAW campaign to date, impacting several millions of Algerians. Leveraging the potential of social media, 20 Algerian public figures - writers, singers, actors, scholars – and a leading mobile operator joined the 16 days campaign by taking position against GBV. UNW Algeria invited 20 national figures - writers, singers, actors, scholars - to speak up against violence towards women and girls. Their quotes were then disseminated across social medias between November 25 and December 10, in partnership with civil society organizations, major national media and other UN agencies. An advocacy video was also produced gathering the quotes and will be uploaded to Youtube in support of the 2018 16 days campaign. UNW also partnered with mobile phone operator Djezzy who sent bulk messages on GBV to its subscribers each of the 16 days. As a result, more than 16 million Algerians from all over the country received an awareness-raising message, which contained information on the 16 days campaign in both Arabic and French.
Within the 16 Days of Activism against GBV, UN Women in partnership with ABAAD and National Commission for Lebanese Women, launched the “LifeForLife” public campaign, which aimed to amend Chapter Seven of the Lebanese Penal Code. More specifically, the call is to amend the law that condemns any offender found guilty of sexual assault of a daughter, sister, granddaughter, nieces or any person of whom he has physical or legal custody with a life sentence in prison. Incest rape is one of the most dangerous and most widespread forms of rape and sexual assault in Lebanon.
DRC
Strengthening of community prevention mechanisms with vigilance committees; sensitization of the military and police on their role in civil protection. Action to repress the perpetrators of sexual violence with emblematic trials of certain senior military officers. Actions carried out by the office of the Personal Representative of the Head of State in charge of combating sexual violence with the support of partners, in particular UN Women and UNFPA.
CAMEROON
UNW CAMEROON sept up women cohesion space to provide holistance assistance to GBV survivors. In humanitarian settings, awareness raising activities in different forms reached a great number of women, men, girls and boys including traditional and religious leaders who maintain significant influence over social norms and behaviours at the community level, on gender-based violence, girls' education, importance of women's economic empowerment, early/forced marriage and other relevant issues. These community outreach activities were not only prevention measures but also served as a first step to inform the population on available GBV services and to encourage them to report cases in the social environment that traditionally silences the survivors of violence.
LIBERIA
Liberia is not in a conflict situation at the moment. However, measures are available as part of disaster response strategy.
NIGER
The Diffa region is prey to the interventions of the boko Haram nebula. To support displaced, returned and refugee women, high-impact activities were implemented, including three hundred and fifty income-generating activities in the camps, the provision of more than 1,000 domestic gas kits to enable women not to leave the camps to search for firewood, Equipping health centres in three camps to care for survivors of violence, the three cohesion spaces, gender training for the FDS, GBV and gender mainstreaming in security activities, and the five gender units within the law enforcement services. All these activities benefited more than 5,000 people.
NIGERIA
UN Women supported the state ministries of women affairs and social development in the focus states to commemorate the 16 days of activism on violence against women;
The National Advisory Committee on the implementation of the National Action Plan was inaugurated by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development with support from Un Women and the State Action Plans on UNSCR 1325 was launched n Adamawa Gombe and Plateau state in the period
The HeforShe campaign was launched in three state and male traditional and community leaders were recognized for integrating women in traditional councils and local community leadership committees.
A simplified NAP has been developed to facilitate uptake by the public and the costing for the implementation is underway
Plateau Peacebuilding Agency’s Strategic Plan has been drafted with support from UN Women and state partners
Egypt CO
UN Women Egypt in close collaboration with the National Council for Women (NCW) supported the comprehensive review of the Personal Status Laws (family laws) and Penal Code to analyze the impact of such laws on women's ability to access justice for all forms of violence. The process brought together multiple actors in the justice chain, including members of the judiciary, prosecution, police, social affairs, in addition to specialized councils to develop draft laws and/or amend existing ones to prevent violence against women, punish perpetrators, and ensure the rights of survivors. As a result of several rounds of consultations by national stakeholders, a draft comprehensive law on violence against women, that aims to support a comprehensive response to survivors of violence, including the provision of support and protection services, was developed and will be submitted to parliament by the NCW.
UN Women has been advocating for the passage of The Anti-Domestic Violence Law, introduced to parliament in 2015 and still under review. In January 2017, the law was presented to discussion in front of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, however it failed to pass the committees. The strengths of the draft bill include provisions for services for domestic violence survivors, protection orders (restraining orders) and penalties for their breach, and the establishment of a cross-ministerial committee to combat domestic violence. However, the law does not set penalties for committing the crime of domestic violence, does not repeal provisions in the Iraqi Penal Code that condone domestic violence (such as weaker penalties for ‘honor crimes’), and prioritizes reconciliation over justice.
In November, an amendment to the Personal Status Law (No. 188 of 1959) was proposed that would allow men to marry girls as young as 9 years old. The bill indicates that when issuing decisions on personal status issues, the court should follow the rulings of religious scholars for Sunni or Shiite sects, depending on the husband's faith (i.e. the Scholars' Congregation at the Shiite Endowment Diwan or Scholars' Fatwa Council which represents Sunni jurisprudence). The efforts of CSO’s, women activists, women committee in the parliament and UN agencies including UN Women led to the withdraw of the draft law from the parliament agenda by mid-November.Morocco MCO
UN Women first acted through supporting the civil society in its advocacy efforts to align draft law no 103.13 with international norms and standards, and more especially through supporting the memorandums of the coalition Printemps de la Dignité composed of 25 NGOs throughout the national territory. The coalition is specialized in advocating to the government and to the Parliament on laws and public policies related to EVAW, and has developed a Memorandum on each of the expected reforms and defended their arguments before the Ministry of Justice. UN Women has supported the coalition providing it with tools and guidance on international norms, laws and strategies to EVAW.
UN WomenPalestine supported national counterparts to develop a Family Protection Bill (FPB) in line with international human rights standards. UNW's support included technical advice to the technical committee that was formed by the Council of Ministries to work on the FPB. UNW also facilitated the engagement of the CSOs in this process through sensitizing partners on the rights of CSOs to take part in this process and supporting CSOs simultaneously by providing them with technical and financial support to advocate for the adoption of a responsive bill. UNW has also supported the justice sector strategy to identify legislative priorities for the years 2017- 2022 , which included the penal code, the personal status law, the family protection bill, cybercrime law and others.
Lebanon PP
UN Women Lebanon, in cooperation with several activist civil society organizations, supported a campiagn in 2016 to repeal article 522 of the Penal Code related to rape-marriage, which releases the perpetrator in case he marries the victim. In June 2017, the campaing efforts were materialized with the approval of the Parliament to repeal the article.
Egypt CO
UN Women Egypt in partnership with UN HABITAT carried out a gender analysis of transport patterns in Greater Cairo with the aim of informing the planning, design and tendering of the Bus Rapid Transit national project. A survey was conducted at public transport terminals to gather quantitative and qualitative sex-disaggregated data on passengers’ characteristics, travel patterns, travel costs, security and safety feelings, etc. Sex-disaggregated data proved to be useful to understand public transport usage and access by both women and men, their preferred transport modes, their experiences of harassment, threats to safety, cost of transport, etc. Then, to obtain in-depth information on women’s specific issues in relation to accessibility, affordability and safety in public transport, women-only focus groups were held in three different districts, where women’s mobility patterns were discussed, as well as issues related to their safety and security. In addition, train operators were asked a series of questions on transport, choice of routes, issues related to female passengers’ safety, including some questions on their perception and attitudes towards sexual harassment. The aim of this exercise was also to identify potential economic opportunities for women in the transport sector.
UN Women conducted two research pieces in partnership with Oxfam. A Gender and Conflict Analysis in ISIS Affected Communities of Iraq was published May 2017. A Gender Gap Analsyis is in the final review stages and is expected to be published in the second quarter of 2018.
In collaboration with the Centre for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), UN Women Regiona Office for the Arab States published the study "Estimating Costs of Marital Violence in the Arab Region" as a part of a regional project on estimating the cost of violence against women in the Arab region. This economic model measures the costs of intimate partner violence by estimating household costs associated with violence, community level costs of service provision, and costs related to women’s loss of productivity in the labour market. https://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20office%20arab%20states/attachments/2017/estimating-costs-marital-violence-operational-model-english.pdf?la=en&vs=4616
In 2017, UN Women and REACH launched a report aimed to increase the understanding of the impact of the crisis on women’s access to basic services. The report identified specific issues related to harasshment and perception of safety among women living in communities hosting a larger number of refugees, including through their experience in accessing basic services and public spaces. UN Women is currently working with the Minister of Social Development and other actors in order to address key reccomendations presented in the report through targeted programming and pilot interventions in various Governorates of Jordan.
In 2017, UN Women supported the production of 3 unprecedented reports: (i) through the regional Programme “Men and Women for Gender equality”, UN Women supported the conduct of the International Men and women for Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES), a study that provides a holistic look at the lives of men and women in the region of Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, including their experiences as children, (ii) through the same programme, UN Women supported the Center for Women's Studies in Islam (CERFI), a research center placed under the official religious institution to conduct a survey on perceptions regarding Qiwamah, i.e. the husband’s duty of providing financial support for his wife and children, (iii) in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, UN Women conducted the evaluation of the Family Mutual Aid Fund created in 2011 to support women who do not receive alimony payments.
Aiming at supporting the Palestinian police's Family Protection and Juvenile Unit (FPJU) in data collection and in effectively managing VAW cases, SAWASYA joint Program will support the developemnt of RIAM (case information management system that will support the FPJU of the Palestinian Police and the Specialized prosecutors on VAW to applying the risk assessment template for GBV cases and preparing for the automation of the risk assessment process through this system). UNW has supported the FPJU and the Specialized Public Prosecutors in applying the risk assessment template in preparation for the automation of the risk assessment process through RIAM system. A workshop took place in August 2017 for police officers and specialized public prosecutors to introduce the risk assessment template (RAT) that was piloted for 6 months in 2 districts.
UNW Palestine office conducted different researches on VAW and women's access to justice to generate, documemt and disseminate knowledge and awareness.These included a study on women's access to justice in East Jerusalem, entitled " In the absence of justice", a study on legal aid to women entitled " the impact of legal aid on womenn", women's access to formal and informal justice in Gaza, informal justice system and gender equality in the West Bank, the Situation of Access to informal and formal justice systems for women and girls with dissabilities.
Algeria PP
In Algeria, UN Women has reached an important milestone, in strenghtening the Ministry of National Solidarity, Family and Women Condition's (MSNFCF) capacities to collect data on women and girls victims of violence. A modernized and common data collection framework integrating international guidelines and indicators on WSV, with a focus on SDG 5, was developed by UN Women in partnership with the MSNFCF. The new administrative databased named "AMANE" will allow the MSNFCF and its different structures to collect comprehensive data on Survivors seeking aid from its services. All 54 professionals from the Directorates for Social Action and Solidarity (DASS) and from Women Shelter's have benefited from a specific training on how to use AMANE with a component on gender-based violence and gender issues.
DRC
The "UNiTE" campaign was launched in 2014 by the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations system in the presence of great personalities of the DRC including the Personal Representative of the Head of State in charge of the fight against sexual violence. Supported by UN Women and UNFPA at the Office of the Personal Representative of the Head of State in charge of the fight against sexual violence, the "Break the silence" campaign led to series of trials (691 in 2016) and convictions (299 convictions in 2016) of high ranking military personnel. The establishment of effective coordination mechanisms including the Gender Thematic Group with its four thematic sub-groups (SGT VSBG, SGT Political Participation and Women's Leadership, SGT Empowerment of the Legal Status of Women, SGT Economic Empowerment of Women); UN Trust Fund resources made available to the PANZI Foundation for the holistic treatment of the fight against sexual violence; joint resource mobilization initiatives including the Joint Project to Combat Impunity, Support for Victims of Gender-Based Violence and Women's Empowerment in Eastern DRC "TUPINGE UBAKAJI" with UNDP, UNFPA , UNESCO; the joint project on prevention and coordinated responses to sexual violence in Ituri and North Kivu by UN Women, UNFPA, UNICEF and UNJHRO.
SENEGAL
The Maternal and Child Mortality Reduction Support Program brings together four UN system agencies (UNFPA UNICEF WHO and UN Women) to eliminate gender-based violence that can affect the health of women, children and young girls especially during pregnancy and at the time of delivery. UN Women, OHCHR, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNFPA have joined forces around a coordinated action plan under the leadership of the Ministry of Women, Family and Gender, from 2016-2020 to put an end to all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls. UNDAF outcomes 6 and 8 focus on protecting vulnerable groups from violence and exploitation, and building institutional capacity under UNICEF leadership.
CABO VERDE
The UNiTE campaign/orange campaign and the 16 Days activism campaigns were spearheaded by UNW with a huge impact in social media and great visibility at the national level. By engaging the UN agencies, private and public sectors, the orange campaign in 2017 could reach and get closer to local communities and the intended target audience, being students of secondary schools and universities, leaders of local communities, media and private sector workers, it is comprised of around 20 NGOs as well as Members of Parliament, the Women Network Parliamentarians and the private sector. During the 16 days the movement calls to join forces in addressing specific problems regarding end violence against women and girls in Cabo Verde. Several activities were carried out such as: the Orange café with Journalists- Several journalists were invited to participate in the 16 Days of Activism actions to End Violence against Women and Girls across the country; School engagement - Campaign "16 days of activism against violence" starts with schools; Cabo Verde Parliamentarians dressed in orange for the 16 days of activism; Free HUGS - promoting the culture of non-violence in the capital city Praia offering free hugs to all;
Under the lead of UNW the interagency thematic group on human rights and gender has successfully implemented the UN Free & Equal campaign, positioning Cabo Verde has the first Africa country
MALI
Mali actively participates in the Secretary General's campaign for the elimination of violence against women every year. In November 2017 the campaign was launched by the Minister for the Advancement of Women under the leadership of UN Women with the participation of various agencies of the United Nations system, civil society organizations including young people.
UN Women supported the GBV specialist of ONE action in Mali for the mobilization of resources and the implementation of activities in the framework of the development of the national strategy to combat gender-based violence in Mali.
UN Women is an active member of the Network for Protection against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Mali. Within this framework, focal point training activities were organized at national and regional level in collaboration with UNFPA and UNICEF. Information feedback mechanisms have been put in place and sensitization sessions have been conducted on the radio and at the community level to encourage people to use these mechanisms, including the toll-free number 80 333 to disclose cases of abuse. sexual exploitation.
CAMEROON
UNW Cameroon has coordinated the UNCT SWAP scorecard process and the elaboration of action plan. The country office has been engaged in the implementation of the UNSWAP Scorecard plan and has succeeded in inscribing gender in the 2018 UNCT annual work plan. The office has also worked to mainstream gender in joint programs of the 2018-2020 UNDAF. The coordination of development support between the Government and technical partners has launched sector platforms; among the said Platforms, UN Women has been co-lead of the cross-cutting gender platform with the Ministry of women empowerment and also co-lead of the platform on social development with the Ministry of Social Affairs. Concerning the normative work, UN Women has supported the elaboration of the 6th Cameroon’s CEDAW report, coordinating with other UN agencies to input it and to make it a consensual report with other stakeholders (civil society, private sector…).UN Women coordinated the activities for 16 days campaign on violence against women and girls with the annual theme of “leave no one behind”. In the Far North region, GBV humanitarian working group under UN Women’s co-lead coordinated relevant activities with partners
LIBERIA
UN Women Liberia Office celebrates the 25th of every month as Orange Day as part of the UN Secretary-General’s UNITE to End Violence Against Women. UN Staff wear Orange colors to raise public awareness and increase political will to address all forms of violence against women and girls. In 2016, UN Women collaborated with the More Than Me Academy (a school for vulnerable girls) to raise awareness on school related violence and a call for actions against those who exploit women and girls. Also, in 2017, UN Women in collaboration with UNMIL Gender Unit held a program at the UNMIL Headquarter for UN Staff as a means of raising awareness and getting staff to contribute to a world free from violence against women and girls. The SRSG reminded staff of the Secretary-General Zero Tolerance Against Sexual Exploitation & Abuse.
UN Women Liberia leads the Government of Liberia/United Nations Joint Programme on SGBV and HTP. The organization is working with community leaders, traditional leaders and paramount chiefs to address issues of Harmful Traditional Practices and other forms of violence that subject women to humiliation.
UN Women Liberia is a member of the National Gender Based Taskforce that meets once every month to discuss issues affecting women and girls and review County level action point for redress. The Taskforce recently protested the amendment of the 2006 Rape Law to make same bailable.
The organization is also part of the ressuscitation of the Inter-Agency PSEA Network. UNMIL had previously coordinated the network until their departure from Liberia
NIGER
The MUSKOKA programme brings together four United Nations agencies, namely UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO and UN WOMEN. Through the FFM, simple, innovative and effective solutions are implemented to prevent maternal and infant mortality. Solutions to reduce maternal and child deaths include access to quality maternal care and skilled health personnel before, during and after childbirth. The added value of UN Women within the MUSKOKA mechanism is based on its mandate as an entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, more specifically on its focus on combating violence against women, a source of inequality, lack of access by women to decision-making processes and resources, but also a cause of endangering their lives, which is aggravated during pregnancy and childbirth following the prevention and response to such violence.
UN WOMEN has adopted a holistic approach: prevention and response. The objective of these activities is to promote and facilitate women's access to maternal health through:
Activities:
- The creation of reproductive health service demands;
- The development of communication and mobilization campaigns;
- The implementation of strategies and actions against discriminatory practices and gender-based violence (GBV);
- Care for survivors of violence, identification of links between violence against women and maternal mortality and improvement of knowledge on the subject.;
- The men's club;
- The creation of multi-actor platforms;
- In addition, the impulse of the demand for maternal health services requires a good knowledge of the factors that cause difficulties in the relationship between women, girls and health workers in the regions of Maradi, Tillabery, Dosso and Tahoua;
- Rehabilitation of multimedia centre for access to information on GBV, gender, SSRJA, women's rights, etc;
- The involvement of religious, traditional and local leaders in the fight against GBV;
The results obtained:
- 10,000 girls and women, men sensitized on GBV, prevention of early pregnancies and reproductive health services through awareness caravans in Dosso, Maradi, Tillabéry and Tahoua;
- A traditional leader in Maradi has been identified as a champion in the fight against GBV in Maradi, where the highest rate of GBV is recorded in Niger;
- Two Muslim and Christian religious leaders were identified as champions in the fight against GBV in Niamey and Tahoua;
- More than 500 women, girls, boys and men in Dosso have increased access to information about GBV, the type of GBAS through the multimedia centre;
- More than 100 women and girls in Dosso have been trained on the use of INTICs for access to SRH information;
- More than 200 leaders have increased their sensitivity to GBV and SSR Dosso, Maradi, Tillabéry and Tahoua;
- More than 500 boys, men, and leaders recruited and committed within associations and clubs to fight GBV, women's rights and gender;
- A study on the satisfaction of SRH beneficiaries is currently being validated.
- All these achievements contributed to enlist men, women, girls and boys, decision makers, local and religious leaders for the respect of women's rights, girls' rights, gender and the fight against GBV.
NIGERIA
Gender-Based Violence Sub-Working Group (GBV-SWG) is an inter-agency coordination group set up to ensure coherence in the humanitarian responses of partners in Nigeria. UN Women is a member of the group with UNFPA as the chair. During the reporting period, GBV partners together scaled up engagement with leaders and communities with sensitisation on GBV/SEA principles and during the 2017 16 Days of Activitism, GBV partners across the affected states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe held series of activities ranging from policy dialogues with leaders, engaging young people in and out of school through debates, public processions, town hall meetings, a series of activities with women's groups within women and girls friendly spaces, livelihood bazaar, radio talk shows among others to demand zero tolerance to GBV. At the close of 2017, the GBV partners took stock of their interventions; there were evidences that there is better understanding of the GBV protection situation and needs among partners, partners together reached 66,413 (27,005 women, 15,392 girls, 13,675 men and 10,186 boys) individuals with various interventions. Out of which 9,479 individuals received psychological first aid and various psychosocial support interventions, 1,682 accessed medical services and some 440 accessed other specialised services through case management and referrals. Overall from Janaury to November 2017, GBV sub sector partners together have collectively benefitted 797,640 (364,897 women, 188,347 girls, 148,066 men and 95,523 boys) individuals, reaching 80% of the overall target for 2017
Jordan CO
On 16 February 2017, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women considered the sixth periodic report of Jordan on its implementation of the CEDAW provisions. Ahead of the CEDAW Committee session, UN Women presented the UNCT CEDAW shadow report to the Committee developed in 2016. The development of Jordan’s 6th Periodic Report is also the result of the technical support provided by UN Women, in partnership with UNICEF and UNFPA, to JNCW through a dedicated joint programme which allowed extensive national consultations. Following the issuing of the Committee’s concluding observations, the CO continues to engage UN partners, donor and the civil society in the discussion over Jordan’s international commitments, with a particular focus on issues related to patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes. A new pilot programme has been launched in November 2017 funded by the Government of the Netherlands.
2017 was a UPR reporting year for Morocco, UN Women’s support to the coalition focused this year to the civil society advocacy on Member States recommendations and the National Report. In this respect, UN Women supported the Moroccan civil society coalition for the defense of women’s human rights in intergovernmental human rights processes and bodies. The coalition is composed of 32 civil society organizations based throughout the whole national territory and works following a participatory approach and inclusive processes. UN Women has supported three consultations related to the UPR process were convened with the civil society: (i) the first one between four representatives of the coalition and four UN Women staff on the coalition advocacy strategy, (ii) the second one with the UN system through the Gender thematic group to which 13 UN staff and 6 members of the coalition participated, (iii) the third one with bilateral and multilateral cooperation agencies with the European Union Delegation, with about 30 representatives of cooperation agencies.
DRC
After the promulgation of the revised Family Code, United Nations agencies mobilized to disseminate texts and laws favorable to women's rights (the Family Code, the Parity Act, the Child Protection Act, the Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence and the Act on the Protection of Persons Living with HIV), The Maputo Protocol on Gender and Development, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Security Council resolutions (notably Resolution 1325) during the 16 Days of Activism campaigns in November 2017, Amani Festival in February 2018 and Women's Month in March 2018. A draft bill on the reparation and compensation mechanism for victims of sexual violence has been submitted to the Senate. The agencies support the government in the process of reviewing the national strategy to combat sexual and gender-based violence and the national action plan 1325.
SENEGAL
Senegal has a legal framework favorable to the elimination of gender-based violence through the law against excision, the law on parity, the law for nationality, the Senegal Emerging Plan, the National Strategy for Equity and Gender Equality, the National Strategy for the Promotion of Rights and Protection of Children.
CABO VERDE
In the continued efforts to support the implementation of the CEDAW and other international and regional normative frameworks on women’s human rights, in 2017 the UN Women supported the evaluation of the 6-years implementation of the law. The evaluation has provided several insights and evidences of the best practices and lesson learnt that informed the Government in how to improve the procedures and promote new responses to face the challenges of the implementation of the GBV law. This analysis has provided key elements for the monitoring of the national goals for eliminating GBV in alignment with international human rights and gender frameworks and provided guidance’s to where the actors responsible for the application of the law should improve to better tackle this phenomenon in Cabo Verde. The Evaluation of the Implementation of GBV Law has been a powerful instrument of discussion and analyses, UNW supported the government by presenting the final results to public and stakeholders. The conducted evaluation has shown, that, even so, challenges persist, including with the moroseness of judicial responses and in the institutionalization of victim support services, geared toward their sustainability thereof.
MALI
Thanks to the support of development partners including UN Women and a draft law against female circumcision submitted to the National Assembly (NA) of Mali by the PACTE Group, the idea of a law against GBV was formed on the initiative of a working commission composed of national and international organizations under the aegis of the NGO ACORD Mali supported by UN Women. The Government of Mali through the Ministry of Women has taken the lead through the National Programme to Combat the Practice of Excision (PNLE). A committee to monitor the law was set up by ministerial order and this committee delegated a technical team of five national and international experts (two lawyers and an anthropologist from Mali and two volunteer Canadian legal advisors) to draft a bill against GBV in Mali. The Ministry of Gender and the Ministry of Justice will bring this draft bill before the Government and the National Assembly.
CAMEROON
In humanitarian settings, the capacity and the level of ownership of police forces as a primary protection actor on violence against women issues has significantly increased in 2017. Their increased commitment and actions in the field translating the humanitarian principles and national standards in coordination with other humanitarian actors resulted in gender-based violence cases received by gender desk officers at police stations. UNWOMEN also started to work with judicial actors on VAW in 2017 through magistrat training, and it is expected that further collaborative work with Ministry of Justice will continue in 2018 to strengthen their capacity to treat cases with sensitivity and full understanding of the VAW issues
LIBERIA
Except for the 2014 Amendment of the Elections Law of Liberia which calls for the list of candidates from political party or coalition to have no less than 30% of its members/candidates from each gender, there are 3 key laws still before the National Legislature for passage; Domestic Violence Law, Land Rights Law and the CRC.
NIGER
The Constitution of 25 November 2011 and all subsequent texts support the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls, including the quota law which grants a certain number of elective and nominative places to women the 1325 decree 2017 on the retention of girls in school. All these texts exist but the effectiveness of their application remains problematic.
GUINEA CONAKRY, TOGO, CHAD
Knowledge production and advocacy on violence and maternal health
In Guinea Conakry, about 100 health workers have been trained on GBV and its consequences.
In Togo, the same study generated strong interest from partners. The United Nations system and UNFPA are taking a closer look at this phenomenon.
In Guinea, the capacities of 100 health providers were sensitized on violence in delivery rooms with the contribution of several local NGOs.
Chad has organized advocacy for the dissemination of the penal code through the training of community leaders on the provisions of the penal code and Law 029 prohibiting child marriage.