A/HRC/35/20 UNDP provides for the establishment and strengthening of national human rights institutions in all regions, and its collaboration with regional networks of national human rights institutions. 4. Technical cooperation by OHCHR in close collaboration with other United Nations agencies — examples from the Democratic Republic of the Congo 64. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, addressing sexual violence against women has long been an issue involving several United Nations agencies. In 2013, the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office — the human rights component of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) — provided legal assistance free of charge to 1,507 victims of sexual violence, in 12 legal clinics and 25 legal aid centres throughout the country. Additionally, between 2009 and 2014, around 33,000 victims of sexual violence benefited from holistic care comprising legal, medical, psychosocial, and social and economic assistance, provided by MONUSCO, UN-Women, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, the United Nations Population Fund and UNICEF, often through local NGOs. 20 F. Technical human rights cooperation by regional organizations21 65. In September 2013, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe signed a framework cooperation agreement on reinforcing cooperation between the two institutions. The agreement covers regular consultation and joint participation in activities, exchange of information and general cooperation. One of the aims of the agreement is to strengthen cooperation in the field, including by assisting governments in implementing the recommendations of the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. 66. In response to the armed conflict in Ukraine, several regional organizations have cooperated closely with the local OHCHR field presence and also implemented their own monitoring and technical cooperation activities. In January 2015, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) initiated a project in Ukraine to build the capacity of civil society, religious or belief communities and relevant State institutions to identify and respond to hate crimes, and to promote dialogue among religious people and between the State and religious or belief communities, in line with international standards on freedom of religion or belief. The OSCE project coordinator in Ukraine has provided capacity-building and technical cooperation in many other human rights areas, including the rights of internally displaced persons, trafficking, domestic violence, the training of judges, advocates, journalists and law enforcement officers, and the development of a national action plan on Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security. OSCE also provides capacity-building and technical cooperation in the Balkans and the Commonwealth of Independent States. 67. The VFTC Board of Trustees has often encouraged and praised OHCHR technical cooperation work with regional and subregional human rights mechanisms in Africa, such as the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Economic Community of West African States and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (see, for example, A/HRC/16/66, para. 18). IV. Lessons learned, challenges and the way forward 68. The last ten years of developing and implementing OHCHR technical cooperation programmes with key State partners, in cooperation with other United Nations agencies and regional organizations, have been particularly fruitful in terms of results and the 20 21 14 Data gathered from MONUSCO performance reports from 2009 to 2014. For further information, see A/HRC/34/23.