Measures

In the context of the emergence of UN Women, UNFPA worked to clarify for its staff comparative advantage and value-added areas, where UNFPA mandates will support UN efforts to transform gender relations, end gender-based violence and harmful practices and ensure that legislative frameworks are strengthened and implemented. The UNFPA Gender and Gender-based Violence Advisers participated in capacity building and strategic planning meetings. Capacity development strategies were aimed at policy and institutional levels and at improving technical assistance. Building on the outcomes of the 2008 Gender Capacity Assessment report, work was initiated to: i) harmonize and create more gender responsive indicators in the thematic funds; ii) to strengthen networks of regional Gender and Gender-based Violence advisers; and, iii) to support regions to develop in-country capacities with Country Office-level gender and gender-based violence focal points. Hide

UNFPA has developed a draft strategy on gender-based Violence for the Latin America and Caribbean region via a workshop held in Guatemala in September 2010. The sub-regional strategy – with a focus on sexual violence – will aim to provide guidance to UNFPA country offices and partners in the region to develop a comprehensive response to addressing sexual violence. Hide

In partnership with NGOs, UNFPA community-based work on the abandonment of FGM/C (under the joint programme with UNICEF) has produced capacity-building trainings and guidance documents that are vital to the programme. Under programme support by UNFPA to the Institute for Development Studies (IDS), the Institute developed capacities of stakeholders in India, Kenya and Uganda to engage men and boys to combat violence against women in institutional settings. Hide

UNFPA in collaboration with UNIFEM and UNESCAP organised a capacity development workshop in Thailand in October 2010 aimed at helping 11 country offices in the Asia-Pacific region understand SCR 1325. This workshop also launched the Asia-Pacific technical platform on SCR 1325, the purpose of which is to provide technical assistance to countries in the region on the development of National Action Plans on SCR 1325. Hide

UNFPA is a key member of the Inter-agency Task Force on Women, Peace and Security and worked with Task Force Members to develop the global indicators under UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (and which was presented by the UN Secretary General to Security Council Member States in end-October 2010). Hide

UNFPA provides support to the Kofi Annan Peace Institute in Ghana to develop capacities of grassroots women to implement SCR 1325 components in select African countries. Hide

In November 2010, UNFPA held in New York the global consultation on “Delivering as One on Addressing Violence Against Women: From Intent to Action” with the objective of presenting lessons and share experiences from multi-stakeholder joint programming in the 10 select pilot countries under the Inter-agency Task Force on Violence against Women (of which UNFPA is lead implementing agency at the pilot country levels). The draft of the manual on lessons learned on joint programming from implementation of activities under the Inter-agency Task Force on Violence Against Women has been developed and key lessons were presented at the global consultations. Hide

Almost all of the 142 country offices of UNFPA have a country programme on addressing gender-based violence or on violence against girls. UNFPA is leading the efforts of the Gender-based Violence cluster to address gender-based violence in Haiti. Hide

The UN Action Secretariat organized the consultative process with the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security and Member States and drafted the Secretary-General’s 2nd report on the implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1820 and 1888.The UN Action Secretariat worked with UN Women to organize the consultative process and drafting of the Paper for the Secretary General’s Policy Committee on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence. The Secretary General’s Policy Committee decisions included the preparation of guidance notes by the Office of the Special Representative to the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict on monitoring, analysis and reporting arrangements for conflict-related sexual violence ; the development of early-warning indicators of spikes in sexual violence by UN Action; the engagement of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and senior UN officials in dialogue with parties to armed conflict to elicit protection commitments to prevent and address sexual violence, and implementation of these commitments will be monitored as part of the application of listing and delisting criteria; the development of new guidance by UN Women, OHCHR, and other UN entities, on reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence.From 28 September to 6 October, Margot Wallström, the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and Chair of the UN Action network, visited Walikale in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the use of sexual violence as a tactic of war in this conflict, particularly with regard to the mass rapes of late August 2010. The Special Representative of the Secretary General briefed the Security Council on her return. Ms. Wallström also visited Bosnia from 22-25 November to meet with survivors of sexual violence from the conflict of the early 1990s and hear about their experiences in accessing justice and reparations. Her visit shone a spotlight on issues of impunity in the aftermath of the conflict in the region.The UN Action Secretariat has translated Addressing Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: An Analytical Inventory of Peacekeeping Practice into French and Spanish for distribution to peacekeeping training centers.UN Action continues to pursue its advocacy campaign using a variety of communications efforts, including the Stop Rape Now website.Active involvement of former UNIFEM now part of UN Women continued in the work of the UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, most especially in the areas of mediation, trainings for peacekeeping, reparations for survivors, and advocacy. As a key member of UN Action as well as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Sexual Violence in Conflict, UNFPA is actively involved in addressing issues of sexual violence in conflict via ongoing programmatic interventions in countries that are in conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian settings.In the past six months UN Action’s Multi-Donor Trust Fund has provided funding for the following projects:• A series of meetings among several stakeholders in Bosnia to discuss obstacles to Bosnian women’s participation in accountability mechanisms for incidences of sexual violence, spearheaded by UNFPA.• A technical meeting on responding to the psychosocial and mental health needs of sexual violence survivors, led by WHO.• The development of a guidance note and trainings for mediators on issues of sexual violence, spearheaded by DPA.• A new two-year post within DPKO to work on the full implementation of Security Council Resolutions 1820, 1888 and 1960.As part of its work with UN Action, WHO, with US Center for Disease Control (CDC), is developing two survey instruments for measuring conflict related sexual violence and to understand men's motivations, risk factors and perpetration of such violence. Hide

The OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia participated in the Commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of UN Security Council 1325, on Women, Peace and Security held by the Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (TWG-GEEW). The event also launched the Regional Advisory Group on Women, Peace and Security, where several stakeholders were present. The OHCHR Regional Office in the Pacific gave a presentation on “Women and Conflict and Peace and Security” at the Regional Training Program on violence against women, which was organized and facilitated by Fiji Women’s Crisis Center (FWCC). On 26 October, the Regional Office and the OHCHR New York Office organized a workshop for the 1325 anniversary in New York entitled: Unrecognized Conflict: Women’s Survival and Security. The workshop discussed issues of unknown and unrecognized conflicts and how they impact women’s security. On 27 October, in New York, the OHCHR facilitated a workshop on “Building Peace: Exploring the Intersections of Militarism and Violence against Women”, as part of the 1325 anniversary. The OHCHR Regional Office in the Pacific published a discussion paper for the 10th Anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325, entitled “Armed Tribal Conflict and Sorcery in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.” On 25 October, the Regional Office further presented issues from the discussion paper at a workshop ‘Voices from the Frontlines’ organized by the United Methodist Women and World Council of Churches. Hide