15 Years of the United Nations Trust Fund
To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November, and in tribute to grassroots activists around the world who are at the forefront of the efforts to end the pandemic of violence, the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) today announced its new global Call for Proposals to support country-level programmes to end violence against women and girls.
This year’s Call for Proposals marks the UN Trust Fund’s 15th anniversary. “The fifteen years of the UN Trust Fund have shown us what works to end violence against women,” said Michelle Bachelet, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women. “Change is possible, and the strategies and innovations that have developed with support from the UN Trust Fund are a strong testament to the fact that we are at a unique moment in history to put an end to violence against women. It is time to translate this momentum into reality for women and girls, and their communities and nations.” Read more »
Stories from the field
AMERICAS AND THE CARIBBEAN
- Guatemala: Young Mayan Women Shape the Future
At 24 years old, Laura has already endured a lifetime of suffering. Growing up in an indigenous community in Quetzaltenango, in western Guatemala, Laura lost her mother at the tender age of 13. Read more »
- Brazil: Speaking Out against Violence through Hip Hop
Janaina Oliveira is a young woman from a poor neighbourhood in one of Rio de Janeiro’s suburbs with an alarmingly high rate of violence against women and girls. Read more»
- Colombia: Mapping Experiences Changes Municipal Plans
She was from a rural area in the department of Tolima, but after she was raped, she fled to the city of Soacha. There, she settled in a place where it was illegal to live, but she did not know where else to go. Read more»
AFRICA
- Cameroon: Hope and Medical Care Reach Refugees in Cameroon
A13-year-old girl leaves her home to collect wood and make a fire for cooking. A man approaches her and rapes her. She’s too scared to tell her parents, hiding her grief privately. Read more »
- Rwanda: Women Ex-Combatants Advocate for Peace and Rights
Violence has affected nearly every aspect of the lives of women in Rwanda. The 1994 genocide killed 800,000 people and resulted in the rape of at least 500,000 women. Read more »
- Changing Attitudes towards FGM in Kenya
Zipporah Kittony was thirteen years old when she ran away from home. She was running because her parents were refusing to let her take part in a common cultural ritual — one that she is now fighting to end. Read more »
EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA
- Bulgaria: Activists Bring a Law Alive
After Bulgaria passed its Law on Protection against Domestic Violence in 2005, the courts in Sofia, the capital, were soon busy processing hundreds of cases. Read more »
- Russia: Helping HIV-positive Women Rebuild Their Lives (12 Oct 2010)
When Valentina, an HIV-positive resident of St. Petersburg, Russia, realized she needed help, she was 34 and expecting a child. She had contracted HIV a few years earlier from her late drug-abusing husband. Read more »
- Republic of Serbia: A Pioneering Province Advances a Plan for Action (24 Nov 2008)
The Serbian province of Vojvodina has an established history of active support for gender equality. While there is not yet a national policy on violence against women, the province has moved ahead with its own strategy for protecting women. Read more »
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
- Cambodia: Reclaiming Life after Acid Attacks
A cook in the Cambodian city Siem Reap, Chhean was compelled to take action against her sister’s tyrannical brother-in-law when in 2008 he sold his two-year-old daughter to a trafficking ring so he could buy a new motorbike. Read more »
- Cambodia: Stars of change Cambodian Youth Lead the Way for Lives Free of Violence
Leaving the comforts of city life was not easy in the beginning for Cambodian youths Chhay Theara and Chea Samphors, who voluntarily agreed to live and work in rural communities to affect behavioral change and attitudes towards gender-based violence. Read more »
- Nepal: Building Mutual Understanding between Men and Women for Lives Free of Violence
“My husband raped me almost every day,” describes a woman from Nepal’s Makwanpur district, one the the country’s regions most affected by HIV and AIDS. “He had the misconception that it was his right to have sex with his wife whenever he wanted to.” Read more »
- Malaysia: Shining a Bright Light: Monitoring a Domestic Violence Law
Ivy Josiah knows that ending violence against women takes more than just the signing of a law. Read more »
NORTH AFRICA AND ARAB STATES
- Morocco: Protection for Women and Girls Marginalized by Stigma
In 2003, Morocco passed its Family Law, a landmark step in guaranteeing women equal rights within the family, including by ending the custom of male “guardianship.” Read more»
- Fighting Femicide against Palestinian Women
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian makes a formidable opponent to anyone she takes on, whether they’re government officials, judges, police officers, clergy, or angry fathers. Read more »
- Occupied Palestinian Territory: Chronicling a Tradition to Put an End to Murder
The evidence was everywhere: mysterious accidents, suddenly missing family members, and private, heartbreaking memories. So-called “honour killings” — the murder of those who dishonour the family — could happen in Palestinian communities whenever women or girls were thought to have shamed their families by engaging in sexual intimacy outside marriage, or by being subject to rape, sexual abuse or incest. Read more »