United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

From 13 to 14 September 2011, the Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (RCM TWG-GEEW) (co-chaired by ESCAP and UN Women) organised and hosted the Inaugural Meeting of the Regional Advisory Group on Women and Peace and Security, during which the terms of reference were adopted and priority areas for action and support were discussed. The outcome was shared in an open session (“Priorities for Implementing United Nations Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in the Asia-Pacific region”). In addition, at its 2 September 2011 meeting, the RCM TWG-GEEW agreed to establish a UNiTE Working Group under its auspices, which is now working to implement the UNiTE Campaign in the Asia-Pacific region. Hide

UN Women manages the project Pacific Regional Facility Fund in Support of Organisations and Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women (EVAW), which is a regional ‘basket fund’ to support a small grants facility for Pacific Island organisations and actions to eliminate VAW. Hide

UN Women Virtual Knowledge Centre (VKC) to End Violence against Women conducted its first global technical webinar on Costing the Implementation of Violence against Women Laws and Policies for United Nations and government colleagues undertaking or embarking on similar work. Hide

UN Women has expanded the resources available through the Virtual Knowledge Centre (VKC) to End Violence against Women to include a database of 800 tools in 60 languages, including in-depth programming modules on campaigns, health, justice and security sectors. Hide

UN Women supported the Afghanistan Ministry of Women’s Affairs to collect data on violence against women (VAW) and set up a web-based database and coding system on VAW. UN Women and UNDP supported an assessment of gender-based violence (GBV) Prevalence, Trends, Legal Recourse, Impact Focusing on Conflict and Transitional Period in ten selected districts of Terai, Nepal. GBV was found to be widely prevalent during the conflict and the transition phase. Recommendations were made to various government and development agencies and non-governmental organizations. 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 prepared reports of the Secretary General to the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly on Violence against women migrant workers (A/66/212) and on the Girl-child (A/66/257); as well as a report of the Secretary General to the fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on Ending female genital mutilation (E/CN.6/2012/8). UNICEF provided technical inputs to both reports. Hide

Under the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund-EVAW), UN Women was supporting activities to monitor cases of sexual and gender-based violence committed under the Khmer Rouge regime, as well as to build safe working conditions for women workers. Hide

UN Women continued to maintain and update the Secretary-General’s database on violence against women. As of 31 January 2012, a total of 119 responses to the questionnaire on violence against women were received and uploaded into the database. In March 2011, UN Women gave a presentation, as a side event during the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, on how to use the Secretary-VCGeneral’s database on violence against women and the Virtual Knowledge Center to End Violence Against Women and Girls. Participants to the demonstration were delegates of Permanent Missions to the United Nations, officials of Member States’ ministries, and non-governmental organizations. Hide

UN Women developed, as requested by the Secretary-General and in collaboration with DPKO and UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict, early warning indicators of conflict-related sexual violence, to be adapted to relevant country-based contexts, integrated into existing and emerging early warning systems, and used by a broad range of protection actors. These indicators were endorsed by the UN Action Steering Committee and will be rolled out in 2012. Hide