Saturday, February 23, 2019
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
#MyVoiceMatters - Community Voices to End FGM
http://www.endfgm.eu/editor/files/2019/02/_MyVoiceMatters_Toolkit_06022019.pptx.pdf
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Celebrating 25 years of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women: Call for submissions
With 2019 marking the 25th anniversary of the creation of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, as well as the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), it is also a precursor to the review, in 2020, of a number of key landmark women’s rights instruments, including: 25 years since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995); 20 years since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security; and 5 years since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015).
Recent years have witnessed a shift in the global landscape representing women’s rights, with the emerging #MeToo and #NiUnaMenos movements and their various manifestations across regions of the world highlighting sexual violence and harassment against women, and the gender inequality triggered by that violence and harassment. The newfound global momentum to end violence against women now faces an upsurge in retrogressive movements and measures.
Sexual violence and harassment and other challenges to the human rights of women must be addressed through the robust application of international human rights law. International standards need to be embodied in national law, and institutions and procedures must be available to enforce the law. The challenge remains as to how we can ensure that these standards, along with relevant international and regional human rights standards and mechanisms are fully implemented.
It is within this context that the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Ms. Dubravka Simonovic, considers that this is a key moment in time to reflect on the challenges now facing women in attaining their rights, and to analyse the adequacy of the international legal framework on violence against women with a view to ascertaining how her mandate can address these challenges going forward.
Taking into consideration the important role that different stakeholders play in reinforcing universal human rights standards, she therefore wishes to secure views from States, National Human Rights Institutions, Non-governmental organizations, as well as members of academia on the following questions:
• As we look to the future, please indicate what are the main challenges to addressing violence against women in its various forms; e.g. the institutional and substantive disconnect between the different international instruments; a lack of understanding of the provisions in international law that link gender equality and violence against women; inadequate judicial protocol or recourse and/or legal framework; impunity of perpetrators; stereotypes and the social stigma associated with reporting etc.?
• As the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on violence against women enters its 25th year, please provide a brief analysis of what your perceptions of the mandate are, highlighting any particular instances where you believe the Special Rapporteur has contributed to the empowerment of women in addressing gender based violence.
• Given the changed landscape of women’s rights and the current global challenges in this regard, please indicate what specific measures should be taken to further strengthen the role of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur to accelerate prevention and elimination of violence against women
• Please indicate what steps should be taken to ensure that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur can effectively contribute to ensuring better institutional coordination across the various international and regional violence against women and gender equality mechanisms for the elimination of violence against women
• Please specify what measures should be taken to support the initiative of the Special Rapporteur to encourage States to establish femicide watch and/ or observatories
• Please indicate what are the opportunities and challenges for strengthening and using the mandate of the Special Rapporteur under the international and regional frameworks to eradicate violence against women and girls, and to accelerate that elimination
Please feel free to respond to one or more questions. All submissions should be sent to vaw@ohchr.org by 28 February and will be used to inform the forthcoming report of the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council in June 2019. You are kindly requested to provide your submissions in English, French or Spanish, which are the working languages of the Secretariat.
Friday, February 1, 2019
Intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: sexual harassment 3/3
10. Encourages States, in efforts to prevent and eliminate sexual harassment, to work in partnership with the private sector and civil society, including women’s and community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, feminist groups, women human rights defenders, girls’ and youth-led organizations and trade, labour and other professional unions, as well as other relevant stakeholders;
11. Urges States to ensure the promotion and protection of the human rights of all women and their sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights in accordance with the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development,12 the Beijing Platform for Action11 and the outcome documents of their review conferences, including through the development and enforcement of policies and legal frameworks and the strengthening of health systems that make universally accessible and available quality, comprehensive sexual and reproductive health-care services, commodities, information and education, including safe and effective methods of modern contraception, emergency contraception, prevention programmes for adolescent pregnancy, maternal health care such as skilled birth attendance and emergency obstetric care, which will reduce obstetric fistula and other complications of pregnancy and delivery, safe abortion where such services are permitted by national law, and prevention and treatment of reproductive tract infections, sexually transmitted infections, HIV and reproductive cancers, recognizing that human rights include the right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion, discrimination and violence;
12. Calls upon States to take necessary measures to ensure that employers in all sectors are held accountable when they fail to abide by laws and regulations addressing sexual harassment, where they exist;
13. Also calls upon States to prevent, address and prohibit violence, including sexual harassment, against women and girls in public and political life, including women in leadership positions, journalists and other media workers and human rights defenders, including through practical steps to prevent threats, harassment and violence, and to combat impunity by ensuring that those responsible for violations and abuses, including sexual and gender-based violence and threats, including in digital contexts, are promptly brought to justice and held accountable through impartial investigations;
14. Further calls upon States to encourage digital technology companies, including Internet service providers and digital platforms, to strengthen or adopt positive measures with a view to eliminating violence and sexual harassment, including sexual harassment in digital contexts;
15. Encourages States to systematically collect, analyse and disseminate data disaggregated by sex, age and other relevant parameters, including, where appropriate, administrative data from the police, the health sector, the judiciary and other relevant sectors, to consider developing methodologies to collect data on all forms of violence against women and girls, including sexual harassment, in, inter alia, digital contexts, in order to monitor all forms of such violence, such as data on the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim and geographical location, with the involvement of national statistical offices and, where appropriate, in partnership with other actors, including law enforcement agencies, in order to effectively review and implement laws, policies, strategies and preventive and protective measures, while ensuring and maintaining the privacy and the confidentiality of the victims;
16. Urges the international community to fulfil its commitment to supporting developing countries, particularly African countries, the least developed countries, small island developing States and landlocked developing countries, in strengthening the capacity of national statistical offices and data systems to ensure access to highquality, timely, reliable and disaggregated data, while ensuring national ownership in supporting and tracking progress on, inter alia, efforts to address violence against women and girls, including sexual harassment;
17. Also urges the international community, including the United Nations system and, as appropriate, regional and subregional organizations, to support national efforts to promote the empowerment of women and girls and gender equality in order to enhance international efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls, through, inter alia, official development assistance and other appropriate assistance, such as facilitating the sharing of guidelines, methodologies and best practices, taking into account national priorities;
18. Calls upon States to promote the full and effective participation of women and, as appropriate, girls in the development, implementation and monitoring of policies, programmes and other initiatives aimed at preventing and responding to violence against women and girls, including sexual harassment;
19. Stresses the need to take necessary measures to ensure that no individual working within the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds, programmes and entities, should be involved in sexual harassment, too often perpetrated against those affected by humanitarian crises, and recognizes the efforts of the United Nations system in this regard;
20. Encourages humanitarian assistance agencies and non-governmental organizations to adopt and implement policies to prevent, address and prohibit sexual harassment within their organizations;
21. Stresses that, within the United Nations system, adequate resources should be assigned to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and other bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes responsible for the promotion of gender equality, the empowerment of women and the human rights of women and girls and to efforts throughout the United Nations system to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls, including sexual harassment, and calls upon the United Nations system to make the necessary support and resources available;
22. Also stresses the importance of the Secretary-General’s Global Database on Violence against Women, expresses its appreciation to all those States that have provided the Database with information regarding, inter alia, their national policies and legal frameworks aimed at eliminating violence against women and girls and supporting victims of such violence, strongly encourages all States to regularly provide updated information for the Database, and calls upon all relevant entities of the United Nations system to continue to support States, at their request, in the compilation and regular updating of pertinent information and to raise awareness of the Database among all relevant stakeholders, including civil society;
23. Calls upon all United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies and invites the Bretton Woods institutions to intensify their efforts at all levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls and to better coordinate their work, with a view to increasing effective support for national efforts to prevent and eliminate sexual harassment;
24. Requests the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on violence against women, its causes and consequences to present an annual report to the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth and seventy-fifth sessions;
25. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session a report containing: (a) Information provided by the United Nations bodies, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies on their follow-up activities to implement resolution 71/170 and the present resolution, including on their assistance to States in their efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls; (b) Information provided by States on their follow-up activities to implement the present resolution;
26. Also requests the Secretary-General to present an oral report to the Commission on the Status of Women at its sixty-third and sixty-fourth sessions, including information provided by the United Nations bodies, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies on recent follow-up activities to implement resolutions 69/147 and 71/170 and the present resolution, and urges United Nations bodies, entities, funds and programmes and the specialized agencies to contribute promptly to that report;
27. Decides to continue its consideration of the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls at its seventy-fifth session under the item entitled “Advancement of women”.
55th plenary meeting 17 December 2018
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