United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

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

A round table on “Public Policies on Gender based Violence” organized by the Dominican Republic Escuela Nacional de Formación Electoral y del Estado Civil, EFEC, in coordination with UN Women and UNDP. Hide

UN Women supported the National Judicial Academy to conduct trainings on gender-based violence, gender equality issues and gender justice to 122 law enforcers/implementers and 99 civil society actors in five districts of Nepal. Hide

Through the UN Women-spearheaded Partnership for Peace (PfP) Violence Intervention Programme in the Caribbean, statistics from a longitudinal assessment in Grenada show that less than 20% of the men who have gone through the programme return to court as repeat offenders. Even though the programme´s evaluation is currently in progress, the available information suggests that its methods are effective in changing men´s violent behaviours. Hide

UN Women continued to support the first multi-purpose Centre in the occupied Palestinian territory (West Bank) for women victims of violence through provision of technical and financial assistance. The Centre includes a shelter which has hosted twenty women and their children on a monthly basis. Towards the end of 2011, the revision of policies and procedures of the Centre was initiated and will lead to the upgrading to national policies and procedures. The first multi-purpose Centre in the Gaza Strip was established modeling the Centre in the West Bank. Hide

In Colombia, prior to the adoption of the Victim and Land Restitution Law, UN Women provided technical assistance to the government to incorporate a gender perspective and promoted regional consultations with women`s organizations and a public hearing at the National Congress. This law recognizes that women are among the most vulnerable victims and therefore they need to receive special attention in the provision of medical and physiological services, access to education and restitution of their properties. Hide

In Algeria, UN Women contributed to the institutional operational Plan of the National Strategy for the elimination of Violence against Women, in partnership with UNFPA and UNDP. UN Women also provided assistance to the process of transitional Justice, specifically to the Tunisian Commission investigating human rights violations during the revolution to strengthen its capacities in terms of gender consideration in its mandate.As the lead agency for the joint Millenium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) Gender Programme in Morocco, UN Women has greatly contributed to the implementation of the National Strategy to combat VAW (SNLCVF) at two levels: the establishment of legal reforms (Penal code, domestic labor), as well as the strategy’s implementation at the local level, particularly through the empowerment of women's survivors of violence through income generating activities in 6 Moroccan regions. UN Women also supported the national women's machinery (MDSFS) in the country to coordinate and finalize the adoption of the Gender Equality Agenda for 2011-2015 (March 2011).In Cambodia, UN Women offered technical assistance and support to policy formulation and implementation by national partners. In preparation for Cambodia’s new National Action Plan against Violence Against Women (NAPVAW), UN Women has been generating action-oriented research on gender norms and costing of violence. Hide

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

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