A/HRC/44/3
E/CN.6/2020/8
A.
Preventing violence against women and girls
21. Preventing violence against women and girls is a key element of most projects
supported by the trust fund. Changing attitudes and behaviours and challenging the
entrenched stereotypes about gender roles that underpin violence against women and
girls are major components of this strand of grantees’ work. Projects are being
implemented to bring about attitudinal change in communities, addressing men and
boys as well as women and girls, communities and service providers, and empowering
women and girls.
22. A project in Cambodia is being implemented by ADD International in
partnership with local organizations to empower disabled women ’s networks and
strengthen their capacity to lead primary prevention efforts in six districts in which
domestic violence is reported to be high. The target of the project is violence
committed by relatives and caregivers against women and girls with disabilities. The
aim of the project is to strengthen the capacity of women-led organizations that work
for people with disabilities so that they may more effectively support women and girls
through prevention interventions. Also under that programme, women and girls with
disabilities will be trained to become volunteer role models and a methodology will
be developed to analyse the incidence and causes of gender-based violence. The
methodology will be disseminated in Cambodia and internationally.
23. In Turkey, the Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV) has implemented a
second-generation trust fund grant 9 to run a community-based project that is focused
on the role of fatherhood as an entry point to changing behaviours that give rise to
violence against women and girls. ACEV instituted an innovative 10 -week father
support programme to transform gender-normative attitudes in the home. A final
external evaluation showed that, following the trainings, 43 per cent of fathers took
on more responsibility in child development and household duties and applied
non-violent communication methods. It was also found that the number of incidents
of physical violence towards women and children decreased after fathers had attended
the training. The project reached 6,045 fathers through 471 father support programme
groups in five provinces in Turkey. The project was also aimed at creating sustainable
long-term change in Turkish society through three advocacy campaigns that promoted
gender equality in the home with a view to preventing violence. The campaigns
reached more than 2 million people. In addition, 150 graduates of the programme
created, together with ACEV, nine new local fatherhood groups to extend the
programme’s reach and create a nationwide network of men who stand for gender
equality.
24. Projects aimed at making schools and other educational settings safe places for
girls are an important part of the trust fund’s preventive focus. In the state of Yucatán,
Mexico, the grantee Ciencia Social Alternativa is implementing a project to reduce
the incidence of violence against girls living with disabilities. The aim of the project
to ensure that public officials and education and health professionals are better
equipped both to prevent violence and to provide support to girls who experience
violence. Also under the project, workshops are held to teach girls with disabilities
about their rights and about existing institutions that may provide them with support,
should they ever experience violence of one form or another. In 2019, as part of the
project, three seminars were held on the human rights of people with disabilities.
Among the attendees were public officials, health professionals, teachers, legal
officers and other officials, who drafted 72 proposals for courses of action to further
the rights of girls with disabilities. Public officials who took part said that the
seminars had made them more aware of the role they should play in implementing
__________________
9
19-21597
Second-generation trust fund grants are part of the “invitation only” funding window.
7/15
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents