Protection, Support and Services for Victims/Survivors

UNHCR launched a policy on Access to Justice for Survivors of SGBV, in 2012, aimed at strengthening provision of legal services for survivors. The policy included conducting advocacy and awareness-raising with high-level and local authorities, and capacity-building activities in both formal and informal justice fora. Hide

An ILO programme, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), on Economic Empowerment and HIV Vulnerability Reduction along Transport Corridors in Southern Africa, reported that acceptance attitudes towards violence, through project interventions, such as education on gender equality, had significantly decreased. The project has a strong component on violence against women and focuses on building women’s economic resilience, business skills and related capacities. Hide

UNDP is also working to develop the capacity of service providers, including: integration of specialized and clear rules of conduct in cases of VAW into the General Protocol of Cooperation of relevant institutions, together with the Government in Serbia; technical assistance to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in Cambodia to pilot the recommendations identified in the One-Stop Service Centre (OSSC) feasibility study; and technical assistance to the Papua New Guinea Family Sexual Violence Action Committee to integrate GBV into the national training curriculum for civil servants in 2012. Hide

UNDP is working to strengthen access to justice, including: in Guinea through training of magistrates and auxiliaries, CSOs and CBOs to establish credibility, professionalism, independence and efficiency of the justice system; in the Dominican Republic,through capacity development of the Justice System on monitoring and integration of citizen safety and security and through the inclusion of gender and GBV in the observatories under the auspices of the Nation’s Attorney General; in Sierra Leone through support to CSOs operating nationwide providing shelter, legal and prosecution assistance; in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 4,500 women have been reached in North and South Kivu through multipurpose community centres offering legal assistance and support for sustainable economic and social reintegration into their community; in Afghanistan providing access to legal support through the Help Centres located in each province reaching 3,000 victims of domestic violence; and in Nepal and Pakistan through legal aid clinics. Hide

The World Bank through its Health Sector Support and Multi-Sectorial Aids Project in Burkina Faso has proposed additional financing to support the training of professionals from the mass media, such as journalists from the main daily and weekly journals, national and local radios and television on HIV infection and prevention, including on issues of gender violence. The additional funding will also support women’s organizations at all levels to strengthen their capacity to programme and implement activities focused on HIV prevention, negotiation capacity in sexual relationships and sexual violence including the problems related to female mutilation. In Solomon Islands and Kiribati, the Bank is supporting increased access to various servicices for women survivors of domestic violence and in Bangladesh and the Democratic Republic of Congo, support to strengthening of the health systems. Hide