A/HRC/16/34 E/CN.6/2011/9 Report of the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the activities of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women Summary The present report provides a review of the activities of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, an interagency grant-making mechanism, as well as a review of programming by the United Nations Development Fund for Women, now part of UN Women, on ending violence against women I. Introduction 1. The United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women is a leading multilateral grant-making mechanism devoted exclusively to supporting country- and local-level action to address violence against women and girls in all its forms. Established in 1996 by the General Assembly in its resolution 50/166, the United Nations Trust Fund is governed by an inter-agency Programme Appraisal Committee and administered by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM, part of UN Women) on behalf of the United Nations system. To date, the United Nations Trust Fund has supported 317 programmes in 124 countries and territories with more than $60 million. 2. In the present report to the 55th session of the Commission on the Status of Women and the sixteenth session of the Human Rights Council, paragraphs 3 through 41 describe the Fund’s progress and achievements in 2010, while paragraphs 42 through 67 highlight UNIFEM programming with regard to ending violence against women and girls. II. Background and context 3. Over the course of the past decade, the international community has reached consensus that ending violence against women and girls is critical in order to advance international agendas for human rights, peace and security, poverty reduction and development. The intensification of political will to address violence against women and girls is reflected at the national level in the proliferation and strengthening of laws, policies and action plans to eliminate violence against women, and internationally at the highest levels in General Assembly and Security Council resolutions 1 calling for decisive action and increased resources to address this global pandemic. __________________ 1 2 General Assembly resolutions 61/143, 62/133, 63/155, and 64/137 and A/C.3/65/L.17/Rev.2 on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women; Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009) and 1889 (2009) on women, peace and security. 10-67259