BY UGAMEDIA
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality (UN Women) and the Secretariat of the Africa UNiTE campaign to end violence against women and girls, have said, the agenda of the Summit in Kampala is important, not just for the region, but also for all women in Africa and beyond.
“It is a measure of the level of awareness among the leaders of the ICGLR of the seriousness of SGBV, and its link with the goals of peace, security, stability and development in the region,” the UN WOMEN and Unite campaign said in their presentation this morning to the Regional Inert--Ministerial Committee.
“For the ICGLR is showing leadership in involving its highest policy organs and building consensus on strategic actions necessary to prevent, end impunity and provide services to survivors of SGBV,” the two said in joint presentation presented by Mrs. Florence Butegwa, a representative to the African Union and UNECA.
On January 30, 2010 the Chairperson of the African Union and the UN Secretary General launched the Africa UNiTE campaign to end violence against women and girls in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Africa UNiTE is the Africa component of the global UNiTE campaign launched by Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in February 2008. The ultimate aim of the UNiTE campaign is to mobilize and support governments in fulfilling their commitment to ending violence against women and to empower women and their communities in stopping gender-based violence and demanding accountability.
The campaign aims to contribute towards six outcomes namely, the adoption and enforcement of national laws to address and punish all forms of violence against women and girls, in line with international human rights standards, the adoption and implementation of multi-sect oral national plans of action that emphasize prevention and that are adequately resourced.
Other aims include the establishment of data collection and analysis systems, on the prevalence of various forms of violence against women and girls, the establishment of national and/or local campaigns and the engagement of a diverse range of civil society actors in preventing violence and in supporting women and girls who have been abused.
The last but not least other two is the systematic efforts to address sexual violence in conflict situations and to protect women and girls from rape as a tactic of war, and the full implementation of related laws and policies and ensuring safety for women and girls in public space.
Many of these outcomes are directly or indirectly relevant to the ICGLR Protocol for the Prevention and Suppression of Sexual Violence against Women and Children in the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region.
“It is acknowledged that there is a continuum between violence against women in peacetime, conflict and post-conflict situations with aggravated and widespread sexual violence during armed conflicts,” Mrs. Butegwa said.
The meeting was informed that Mr. Ban Kimoon has obligated all UN organisations to join hands to support countries to launch campaigns and take concerted actions towards the prevention of Violence against women and girls.
“There is great potential in the ICGLR tapping into opportunities created by the UNiTE campaign by partnering with the UN System and other partners in their respective countries to make progress on the three aspects of the theme of this Special Session on SGBV – namely preventing, ending impunity and providing support and services to survivors of SGBV,” the two organisations noted in their presentation. “There are many good practices in the ICGLR that can benefit other regions of Africa through the UNiTE infrastructure and vice versa” they added.
The Africa UNiTE campaign in collaboration with several international and African partners are organizing an Africa UNiTE Mount Kilimanjaro Climb initiative under the theme ‘Speak Out, Climb Up’, Butegwa said.
She said, the climb is scheduled to take place from 5 to 9 March 2012, to symbolically coincide with International Women’s Day on 8 March, and will involve a series of activities and events. Participating will be over 80 climbers, 54 of whom will represent each of the AU member states selected in national consultative processes.
The objectives of the Climb are to raise awareness and the visibility of violence against women and girls as a key issue for development, peace and security in Africa and to mobilize national commitments from all African governments to be implemented by 2015. The commitments will be carried to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro (the rooftop of Africa!).
She invited member states of the ICGLR to see this initiative as an opportunity to mobilize stakeholders in their respective countries towards implementation of the ICGLR Protocol and the commitments in the Declaration to be adopted at this 4th Ordinary Summit and special session on SGBV.
“I invite you to actively get involved in the nomination of and support for the country’s representative to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and to organize comparable or other activities in their respective countries,” she added.
UN Women, during the commemoration of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, outlined a policy agenda with 16 steps to end violence against women. They are namely ratifying international and regional treaties that protect the rights of women and girls, and ensure that national laws and services meet international human rights standards.
The second is to adopt and enforce laws to end impunity, bring perpetrators of violence against women and girls to justice and provide women with reparations and remedy for the violations perpetrated against them.
The third step is to develop national and local action plans for ending violence against women and girls in every country that bring the government, women’s and other civil society organizations, the mass media and the private sector into a coordinated front against such human rights violations.
The other is to make justice accessible to women and girls by providing free legal and specialized services, and increasing women in law enforcement and frontline services and the fifth being to end impunity towards conflict-related sexual violence by prosecuting perpetrators in conflict and post-conflict contexts and fulfilling survivors’ right to comprehensive reparations programmes that are non-stigmatizing and have a transformative impact on women and girls’ lives.
The six step is to ensure universal access to critical services at a minimum, women’s and girls’ emergency and immediate needs should be met through free 24-hour hotlines, prompt intervention for their safety and protection, safe housing and shelter for them and their children, counseling and psycho-social support, post-rape care, and free legal aid to understand their rights and options.
The other step is train providers of frontline services especially the police, lawyers and judges, social workers and health personnel to ensure that they follow quality standards and protocols. Services should be confidential, sensitive and convenient to women survivors.
The other is to provide adequate public resources, disseminate national data on prevalence, invest in gender equality and women’s empowerment to tackle the root causes of violence against women and girls, enhance women’s economic empowerment, increase public awareness, work for and with young people and donate to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.
Butegwa saluted the efforts of the ministries responsible for gender and women’s affairs and the civil society organisations, whose advocacy and leadership role, under fairly difficult and resource constrained conditions, have contributed to the achievements that the ICGLR have made to date.
“UN Women will continue to work with you and with the ICGLR Secretariat as you build onto the important decisions at this Summit and special session on SGBV,” she concluded.
The objectives of the Climb are to raise awareness and the visibility of violence against women and girls as a key issue for development, peace and security in Africa and to mobilize national commitments from all African governments to be implemented by 2015. The commitments will be carried to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro (the rooftop of Africa!).
She invited member states of the ICGLR to see this initiative as an opportunity to mobilize stakeholders in their respective countries towards implementation of the ICGLR Protocol and the commitments in the Declaration to be adopted at this 4th Ordinary Summit and special session on SGBV.
“I invite you to actively get involved in the nomination of and support for the country’s representative to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and to organize comparable or other activities in their respective countries,” she added.
UN Women, during the commemoration of this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, outlined a policy agenda with 16 steps to end violence against women. They are namely ratifying international and regional treaties that protect the rights of women and girls, and ensure that national laws and services meet international human rights standards.
The second is to adopt and enforce laws to end impunity, bring perpetrators of violence against women and girls to justice and provide women with reparations and remedy for the violations perpetrated against them.
The third step is to develop national and local action plans for ending violence against women and girls in every country that bring the government, women’s and other civil society organizations, the mass media and the private sector into a coordinated front against such human rights violations.
The other is to make justice accessible to women and girls by providing free legal and specialized services, and increasing women in law enforcement and frontline services and the fifth being to end impunity towards conflict-related sexual violence by prosecuting perpetrators in conflict and post-conflict contexts and fulfilling survivors’ right to comprehensive reparations programmes that are non-stigmatizing and have a transformative impact on women and girls’ lives.
The six step is to ensure universal access to critical services at a minimum, women’s and girls’ emergency and immediate needs should be met through free 24-hour hotlines, prompt intervention for their safety and protection, safe housing and shelter for them and their children, counseling and psycho-social support, post-rape care, and free legal aid to understand their rights and options.
The other step is train providers of frontline services especially the police, lawyers and judges, social workers and health personnel to ensure that they follow quality standards and protocols. Services should be confidential, sensitive and convenient to women survivors.
The other is to provide adequate public resources, disseminate national data on prevalence, invest in gender equality and women’s empowerment to tackle the root causes of violence against women and girls, enhance women’s economic empowerment, increase public awareness, work for and with young people and donate to the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.
Butegwa saluted the efforts of the ministries responsible for gender and women’s affairs and the civil society organisations, whose advocacy and leadership role, under fairly difficult and resource constrained conditions, have contributed to the achievements that the ICGLR have made to date.
“UN Women will continue to work with you and with the ICGLR Secretariat as you build onto the important decisions at this Summit and special session on SGBV,” she concluded.
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