The 2017 Annual Report of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, published in 2018, highlights some of the activists and movements that worked towards the rights of women and girls. It also serves as a testimony of the achievement of some of their grantees. The UN Trust Fund managed 120 projects in 80 countries addressing and preventing violence against women and children and benefitting over 340,000 women and girls directly. Over 45,000 women and girls who beneficiated were survivors of violence. An estimated 35 percent of women in the world have experienced physical and/or sexual violence.
The UN Trust Fund implemented projects in Peru, Nicaragua, and Brazil focusing on women and children in communities that have historically been underserved in terms of violence reduction initiatives.
The Fund generated achievements through the Women’s Justice Initiative (WJI) in Guatemala. The WJI delivered legal literacy courses to 813 Mayan women in Kaqchikel and 45 percent of the participants began to exercise their legal rights. The following is a quote from one of the beneficiaries:
“Before the workshops, I had the idea that violence was just sexual. If I heard that someone was raped then my mind told me that was violence. But in the course, I learned about all the different types of violence that exist. I learned that if they yell at us, push us, say hurtful things to us, or won’t let us spend money, that this is all part of violence against women. Before, I thought this was just part of living with your husband, but now I’ve learned that isn’t how it should be. Now I have the courage to defend my rights.”
In Ecuador, over 20,000 people were informed on women’s rights to live free of violence through ACDemocraia’s publicity initiatives. The organization also worked in 13 municipalities to improve institutional capacity to respond to gender-based violence.
Conventions, treaties, and standards ratified by States since the UN Declaration of Human Rights have guaranteed, in writing, freedom from violence and discrimination for women and girls. The UN Trust Fund provides support to organizations that work on projects to make that a reality. Of the organizations that received funding, 67% were NGOs that focused on women’s rights issues or were women-led.
To view the full report, please click on the link below.
The image is from the cover of the report.
|Institution:||UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women|