Measures

DPKO gender units/advisers work to ensure that women’s non-governmental organizations are included in common efforts to combat violence against women, including trafficking, as is the case in Kosovo. Gender advisers encourage increased collaboration between the police, national victim-support organizations and the judicial system, as is the case in Sierra Leone. Hide

The United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau’s (UNOGBIS) human rights section has regular meetings with local NGOs and women’s groups, such as the informal forum with the national network fighting against gender and child violence, to discuss violence and other forms of abuse against women, UNOGBIS also participated in the first national conference on violence against women organized by this Network. The aim of the conference was to sensitize national authorities and the population on social values and violence against women, its causes and and how to eliminate it in the local communities. Hide

DPKO Gender units/advisers implement, or support measures to raise awareness about gender-based violence, including campaigns, workshops, meetings and conferences on violence against women, both within mission personnel and the societies where the mission is stationed, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan; they are actively working in a number of missions with civilian police advisers to enhance attention by local police to gender-based violence against women; and they have put in place information sharing strategies to enhance knowledge about the status of women and better coordinate support to women, as is the case in Burundi and Cote d’Ivoire, also in collaboration with non-governmental organizations. DPKO Police advisers in missions study crime trends and assist in creating awareness of the local police and societies through seminars, workshops and targeted training. Hide

ECA supported 12 countries to undertake field studies using the African Gender and Development Index. The 12 pilot countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Uganda) have collected qualitative data on domestic violence, harmful practices, rape, sexual harassment and trafficking in women. They assessed the extent to which governments have ratified international conventions, met all reporting requirements, passed national laws, developed plans with specific targets, set institutional mechanisms, allocated sufficient financial and human resources, undertaken research, collaborated with civil society organizations, disseminated information and set monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for each type of violence against women. The project has been extended during 2007 to five countries, Cape Verde, Senegal, the Gambia, Namibia, and Botswana. Hide

To raise awareness on human rights issues and specifically on violence against women, ECA launched in April 2007, with the collaboration of the UNDP Regional Gender Programme, the African Women’s Rights Observatory (AWRO). The AWRO is expected to contribute to strengthening of tracking and monitoring protection/violations of women’s rights, including violence against women, in African countries. Hide

ECA supports Member States, at their request, and undertakes capacity-building activities for non-governmental organizations on women’s human rights. ECA supports training workshops on women’s human rights, with a focus also on violence against women, in collaboration with partners from governments, United Nations entities and civil society. Examples include a regional training workshop on women’s human rights in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 2003; and a national training workshop on gender mainstreaming in Uganda, in 2004. Hide

ECA supports inter-governmental processes, including those that result in policy instruments for the advancement of women, and the elimination of violence against women. It supports the work of the Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices on fight against traditional practices that are harmful to women and girls, including genital mutilation. Hide

UNECE organizes regional and sub-regional meetings and workshops where experts from national statistical offices, users of statistics and international organizations can discuss the value of surveys on violence against women and can develop guidelines on how to improve them. Through the Conference of European Statisticians Task Force, an inventory of methods used to measure violence against women through population-based surveys was carried out for the region.UNECE has collected countries’ experiences in the implementation of national violence against women surveys with a view of encouraging their implementation under the framework of official statistics. Hide

In 2001, ECLAC convened an International Meeting on Gender Statistics and Indicators for Measuring the Incidence of and Trends in Violence against Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The meeting was convened through the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Statistical Conference of the Americas. Subsequently, ECLAC convened an Inter-agency Coordination Meeting on Gender Statistics (2002) to harmonize the methodology for technical assistance on gender indicators used by the organizations of the United Nations system, with specific attention to violence against women. Hide

The main focus of ECLAC’s activities in addressing violence against women is research. Efforts have included: development of a theoretical and methodological framework aimed at the construction of indicators; collection of available statistical data and information on existing legislation, programmes and public policies; analysis of good practices; and understanding the relationship between gender-based violence and poverty. Hide