Measures

The Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict (S/2007/643) of 28 October 2007, prepared by OCHA, placed considerable focus on gender-based violence in conflict and highlighted ways for all actors to strengthen their actions. The report called on states to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators, including the commanders under whom they serve, if the commanders failed to take measures to prevent the violations, in the case of the armed forces and the police. The report also called on humanitarian actors to strengthen and better coordinate their work. Hide

OCHA is a founding member of the IASC Steering Committee for the Gender Standby Roster (GenCap) which deploys senior gender advisors to work in humanitarian situations. OCHA supported the GenCap Standby capacity to deploy nine senior gender advisers to the offices of Humanitarian Coordinators to ensure strengthened coordination on programmes to address gender-based violence in conflict and displacement. OCHA participated in inter-agency efforts to develop a standard gender-based violence incident reporting system. OCHA spearheaded efforts along with other members of UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict to pay special attention to gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as to the follow-up to the UN Action mission to Darfur, Sudan. Hide

The OCHA Emergency Relief Coordinator went on mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in September 2007 and placed considerable attention on gender-based violence. He followed this up with reports to the Security Council and external media coverage. He hosted the meeting of the Executive Committee on Humanitarian Affairs on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and gender-based violence in December 2007. The meeting further directed the United Nations system to support the field operations (MONUC and the UNCT) to accelerate and strengthen their actions to prevent gender-based violence and respond to survivors. Collective efforts also resulted in an improved mandate for MONUC to address gender-based violence. Hide

In collaboration with leading experts at the London School of Tropical Medicine, UNAIDS together with WHO and the Global coalition on women and AIDS developed costing estimates for integrating programmes that address violence against women into national AIDS programmes. Interventions on violence against women were included in the 2007 UNAIDS “Financial Resources Required to Achieve Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support”.The Global Coalition on Women and AIDS has actively provided technical and financial support to regional coalitions of women leaders. The Regional Coalition of First Ladies and Women Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean Coalition of Women Leaders are working with networks of women living with HIV in putting forward action plans and advocacy campaigns to address gender-based violence. Hide

In August 2007, UNAIDS convened a technical consultation on social change communication aimed, among other things, at examining the role of social change communication in HIV prevention, with a specific focus on tackling the drivers of the epidemic. Hide

In the UNRISD research programme for 2005-2009, violence against women is being addressed under the Gender and Development Programme. The Programme has recently launched an edited volume series, co-published with Routledge, the second of which is Gendered Peace: Women’s Struggles for Post-War Justice and Reconciliation, 2008. Its particular focus is on “post-conflict” or “post-war” period. Hide

The World Bank “The Measuring Empowerment in Four Countries” programme is piloting a mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) approach to measuring empowerment in different contexts. The study is being implemented in Ghana, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Bangladesh. The study focuses on the empowerment of women, and the questionnaire that is administered to women only includes questions on domestic violence and violence against women outside of the home. In Bangladesh, the partner for the implementation of the programme was the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Hide

A regional training workshop conducted by DAW, now part of UN Women, in Bangkok, Thailand, 2006 on follow-up to concluding comments of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, included violence against women as one of the three areas of focus. DAW also has a programme of support to countries emerging from conflict (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Haiti and Afghanistan) to enhance their capacity for implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. Violence against women is regularly addressed under the framework of this programme. Hide

In its programming to end violence against women, UNIFEM, now part of UN Women, works to support and build the capacity of duty bearers to fulfil their responsibilities to promote and protect women’s human rights, including the right to be free from violence, with primary focus on the judiciary, law enforcement officials, parliamentarians, government ministries, legal practitioners, and departments of statistics. Hide

DAW, now part of UN Women, convenes training activities and workshops on women’s human rights for government officials, judicial officers and representatives of civil society, at national and regional level. For example, DAW has convened judicial colloquia on the application of international human rights law at the domestic level in Santiago, Chile, 2005, Nassau, The Bahamas, 2004, Arusha, Tanzania, 2003, Bangkok, Thailand, 2002 and Vienna, Austria, 1999, which have also addressed the issue of violence against women. Events such as the foregoing serve to highlight legislative and judicial approaches in addressing violence against women, provide opportunities for exchanging experiences and enhancing cooperation among different stakeholders in efforts to eliminate violence against women. Hide