Five Regional Commissions join forces to end violence against women

Experts from the five United Nations Regional Commissions and the Division for the Advancement of Women met last week in Geneva to initiate the implementation of an interregional project aimed at eradicating violence against women. The 27 May meeting was held at the Geneva-based Economic Commission for Europe.

The project, “Enhancing capacities to eradicate violence against women through networking of local knowledge communities," is financed by the United Nations Development Account. Ending violence against women is one of the Secretary-General’s top priority issues. (Secretary-General's remarks on launching campaign to end violence against women)

The interregional project seeks to strengthen national and regional capacity to take action to prevent, punish and eradicate violence against women, by enhancing the production of statistical data and indicators as well as knowledge-sharing at the regional and interregional levels.

It is being coordinated by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and will be executed over a 24-month period with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), in collaboration with the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and the UN Statistics Division.

The use of a common methodological framework for measuring violence against women will be insured in the five regions through the basic set of indicators on physical and sexual violence that was recommended by the Friends of the Chair on indicators on violence against women and adopted by the Statistical Commission at its last session in New York from 24-27 February 2009.

“Achieving the project’s objective to develop and invigorate a knowledge community on violence against women at the regional and interregional levels is critical to foster effective public action to eradicate violence against women,” said a statement issued at the meeting.

Planned project activities will give support to countries to respond to resolution 61/143 of the General Assembly on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women. It will take into account progresses already achieved in each region in the areas of knowledge accumulation and data collection.

Each regional commission will give special attention to the specificity of the regional context and work closely with national representatives and governmental counterparts in order to maximize local ownership.