Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

OHCHR Regional Office for Europe provided a briefing (21 October) on the work of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women at an International Conference on Violence against Women in Central America which took place in London and was organized by the Central America Women's Network (CAWN). Hide

Following the report of the “Panel on Reparations for Sexual Violence in the democratic Republic of Congo”, in December 2010, the OHCHR undertook a follow-up mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo to discuss the findings and recommendations of the report with all stakeholders. Hide

The OHCHR Regional Office for Central America organized a training of trainers on “Human Mobility and Human Rights”, for UN staff in the region, that included one Module on Gender Analysis of Migration and violence against women throughout the process. Hide

The OHCHR Country Office in Mexico has completed the first stage of validation of the indicators on violence against women, involving several stakeholders. The OHCHR supported the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences to conduct three country visits, namely to Algeria (1-10 November), Zambia (6-11 December) and the United States (24 January-8 February 2011). The OHCHR supported the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women in attending the civil society regional consultation for the Asia-Pacific region (January 2011). Hide

In May 2010, seven UN agencies (UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, UNDP, UNHCR, OHCHR, UNFPA, UNICEF, WHO) have launched a three-year UN Joint Program "Ending violence against women - a national priority for Kyrgyzstan". Four strategic compenents of the program include: 1) strengthening policy framework, including through the implementation of the recommendations of the UN human bodies and procedures; 2) improving official data collection system and analysis of collected data; 3) awareness-raising, sensititation and capacity-building with the view to change gender stereotypes; 4) protecting and helping survivors of gender-based violence. Hide

In Panama, the OHCHR has participated in the Common Country Assessement (CCA)/UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) processes of Panama throughout 2010 and has an active role in the inter-agency group of gender and the SG UNITE Campaign. The OHCHR organized a human rights-based approach training in Costa Rica, highlighting, inter alia, issues related to women’s rights and violence against women. The OHCHR participated, with a resource person, in a human rights-based approach training, at the UN Staff College, for the UNCT in El Salvador, in connection with the preparation of CCA/UNDAF.Gender Advisors of OHCHR were deployed in four regional offices (Fiji, Lebanon, Panama and Senegal). In the Regional Office in Panama, for example, the role of the Gender Advisor, is to integrate gender analysis into the Office’s areas of work and to raise awareness about violence, against women. Hide

The Panama Regional Office of the OHCHR undertook training activities in Panama in connection with the Universal Periodic Review. Women’s organizations participated in trainings for the civil society and made submissions to the process. The OHCHR also provided training to Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ISDEMU) in El Salvador, for the preparation of the follow-up report to CEDAW’s concluding observations. The follow-up report will focus on priority recommendations, including on efforts to eradicate violence against women. Hide

OHCHR, along with the Office of the SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict, DPKO and UNDP, worked on the operationalization of the team of experts to be deployed to situations of particular concern with respect to sexual violence in armed conflict, in order to assist national authorities to strengthen the rule of law, as called for under Security Council Resolution 1888. At the headquarters level, UNDP and other UN entities have developed a joint programme document and secured seed funding from the UN Action Against Sexual Violence Multi-donor Trust Fund (MDTF) for an initial six month period to recruit and put in place the team of experts. Hide

The OHCHR/Human Rights and Transitional Justice Section in the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste provided a human rights commentary on the draft law against domestic violence. Hide

The OHCHR supported the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences in strengthening partnerships with other human rights mechanisms, both special procedures and treaty bodies, particularly the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences and CEDAW held discussions on ways to strengthen cooperation in a number of areas of their work. In Panama, the OHCHR Regional Office led the preparation of the United Nations Country Team’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) submission, which includes a section on the situation of women in the country, including an alarming increase in cases of femicide. Hide