A/HRC/23/17
E/CN.6/2013/8
vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse. The centre is creating a community safety
network for children by training guardians, teachers, police officers and medical
professionals on how to better protect this group and identify the physical and
mental trauma experienced by abused children who have been left behind. As a
result of the programme, government departments cooperating in the pilot areas
have increased their awareness of the importance of protecting left-behind girls and
have shown interest in integrating components of the intervention into their routine
work. For example, until 2012, local education policy in Suizhou City did not
include safety and sex education in the education and training plan for teachers and
students. Through the efforts of the centre, 1,675 local primary and junior high
school students received critical sexual education and self-protection training, and
sexuality and safety education was included in the annual training plan for teachers
by the Suizhou Education Bureau for the first time. In addition, three resource
centres were established in 2012 as safe spaces for guardians and left-behind
children to share information and experiences, to learn and to help each other. The
centre and its partners have taken the first crucial steps to establish measures for
preventing violence against girls in the context of communities affected by
migration. In doing so, the centre has demonstrated how a strategic, small-scale
investment can have an important multiplier effect.
15. In Zambia, Equality Now is empowering adolescent girls to prevent, identify
and report sexual violence through the creation of safe spaces for girls where they
can build their protective assets. The programme has reached over 1,800 girls in
four schools. Knowing that engaging boys is critical to any prevention effort, the
programme reached 1,500 school-age boys with messages aimed at challenging
stereotypes that condone sexual violence against girls, thus eroding the
discriminatory attitudes and behaviours that have prevented them from becoming
champions of girls’ rights. The attitude change generated by the programme became
evident through the commitment of over 600 boys in four schools to become agents
of change to address sexual violence against girls, with an emphasis on becoming
the next generation of partners in the fight against violence.
16. Recognizing the important role that men and boys can play in promoting zero
tolerance of violence, the Trust Fund has invested approximately $6.3 million in
programmes that specifically engage men and boys as agents of change.
17. Another grantee working to engage men and boys in preventing violence
against women and promoting gender equality is the Brazilian organization Instituto
Promundo. With support from the Trust Fund, the institute implemented a multicountry programme in Brazil, Chile, India and Rwanda, that ended in 2012. The
programme sought to test and evaluate an array of interventions that engage young
and adult men in the prevention of gender-based violence, including in the fields of
sport, education, health and the workplace. The programme was subject to an impact
evaluation in 2012 that demonstrated statistically significant changes both in
attitudes towards violence against women and in the self-reported decrease in the
use of violence against female partners. Qualitative results further affirmed
decreased support for attitudes that encourage men’s use of intimate partner
violence. In India, the programme generated a decline in self-reported perpetration
of intimate partner violence among participants. In Jaunpur, for example, there was
a decrease of self-reported use of physical violence against women over the course
of three months, from 19 per cent at the baseline to 9 per cent at the end-line survey.
The evaluation also showed an increase in knowledge of laws pertaining to violence
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