Programme description

Titled Promoting the Realization of Women's Human Rights through the Elimination Of Violence Against Women, the programme aims to transform development into a more peaceful, equitable and sustainable process.

It utilizes a rights-based approach that links theory with practice to develop activities that hold governments accountable for matching their formal commitment with concrete actions.

Rights Based Approach

A rights-based approach means using international and national conventions, laws and agreements such as the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Human Rights Convention and Beijing Platform for Action to eliminate all forms of violence against women by:

• Obliging states/governments to make commitments to eliminate violence against women;

• Giving civil society, particularly women's organizations, the tools and the leverage to hold governments accountable;

• Empowering women to recognize and utilize their full range of rights.

Strategy

• Motivate local and national partners to collaborate to enhance the impact of efforts to put EVAW on the policy agenda of governments at all levels;

• Encourage and energize collaboration between government and NGO at all levels;

• Create synergies at the local, national and regional levels to enhance programme impact and promote the development of political will to eliminate violence against women.

Programme components

• Creating National and Regional EVAW Action Networks of government organizations, NGOs and international developing agencies.

The specific objective is to use networking to place EVAW on the policy agenda at the local, provincial and national levels in the participating countries and link these activities at the regional level to increase the pressure on governments to take effective policy action. The component will be initiated in Cambodia, Philippines and Thailand, and later extended to other countries in the region.

• Supporting EVAW campaigns in the region

Utilize global public campaigns such as the 16 Days of Activism as catalyst to ensure that EVAW issues are continually brought to public attention and given increased priority by governments at all levels. The principal strategy is to strengthen the national dimensions of activities and to develop a regional dimension through networking and advocacy.

• Awareness raising among the youth

One of the activities under this component is to use theatre-in-education to create awareness among youth of the causes and consequences of violence against women, including the linkage between VAW and HIV/AIDS. Mai Khit Fai (Thailand), a youth theatre group, will use drama in order to make students and schools more aware of VAW.

• Mainstreaming VAW into good governance

The purpose of this component is to use a community-based and multi-stakeholder approach to integrate VAW into the responsibilities of district and provincial governments. Stakeholders involved include police, doctors, nurses, social workers, the private sector, judges, NGOs, students, women’s and youth groups, as well as local government officials.

• Putting EVAW on the political agenda

Putting EVAW on the national political agenda will involve lobbying members of parliament, senators, political parties and women’s wing of political parties. At local levels work will involve lobbying with provincial and district authorities. In Cambodia, one of the activities is to advocate for the passage of a domestic violence bill.

Main activities in 2003

As UNIFEM partners in the EVAW campaign continue work at the national level, UNIFEM will focus this year on bringing national EVAW network partners together for a regional conference scheduled for December 2003. The conference will be an excellent opportunity to review work at the country level and explore opportunities for a regional EVAW network to bring the issue of violence against women to the forefront of regional politics. UNIFEM is still looking for donor support to hold this seminar, but rest assured this important event will be held!

Main activities in 2002

1. Support for the Thailand Women's Parliamentarians Club and the EVAW network to advocate for the drafting of an Anti-Domestic Violence Bill. This was a timely intervention that helped lead to the drafting of a law and great debate among politicians, the media, civil society groups and the public in general.

2. UNIFEM supported a public hearing on the Thai Domestic Violence Bill, organized by the Office of the National Commission of Women's Affairs. Over 100 participants were able to share their views on the drafting of the bill.

3. In Cambodia, skill development workshops on lobbying and advocacy were organized to help promote discussion of the draft Domestic Violence Bill. A draft law was produced, but unfortunately it did not pass in the Cambodian parliament, highlighting a need for further advocacy work in Cambodia.

4. In the Philippines, UNIFEM partners are active in the campaign to eliminate violence against women, but there is a need to develop a rights-based approach that will have a greater impact on societal change. With this in mind UNIFEM supported a national conference to gather anti-VAW activists, advocates and supporters to exchange experiences in how to implement community-level campaigns against VAW.

5. In Vietnam, a two-day workshop organized by the Vietnam Women's Union drew over 50 participants to discuss national laws to combat violence against women. There is no specific law on domestic violence in Vietnam, and as workshop participants concluded such a law is needed, UNIFEM hopes in the future to support further advocacy and research for a DVB in Vietnam.

6. In Laos, UNIFEM is supporting the Lao Women's Union to provide legal and psychological counseling to survivors of domestic violence, at a drop-in centre in Vientiane. UNIFEM's existing support for the drop-in centre will end in August 2003, and UNIFEM along with the Lao Women's Union is looking for further donor support to continue this important programme for a second phase.

In addition to these activities, UNIFEM in 2002 continued to support '16 Days Activism on EVAW' campaigns in eight regional countries, as it has since 1999. The focus for 2002 was to promote men's involvement to stop domestic violence.

Updated: 3Apr2002