A/HRC/19/30 E/CN.6/2012/13 Report of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women on the activities of the United Nations Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate 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 supporting national and local efforts of Governments and non-governmental organizations to end violence against women and girls. Established in 1996 by the General Assembly by its resolution 50/166, the Fund is administered by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) on behalf of the United Nations system. To date, the Fund has supported 339 initiatives in 127 countries and territories, awarding more than $78.4 million in grants. 2. The present report, submitted to the Commission on the Status of Women at its fifty-sixth session and to the Human Rights Council at its nineteenth session, describes the progress and the achievements of the Fund in 2011. II. Background and context 3. The international community is witnessing a historic opportunity to intensify progress towards ending violence against women and girls. Over the past 25 years, female life expectancy has increased, gender gaps in education have been closing and economic opportunities for women have been expanding. 1 Legal reform processes in favour of women’s rights during the same period have also been significant: globally, 139 countries have included gender equality guarantees in their constitutions, with 125 countries specifically enacting laws criminalizing domestic violence. 2 These laws are being reinforced at the international level by successive General Assembly and Security Council resolutions 3 calling for intensified action and recommending multisectoral and sustained approaches to ending violence against women and girls. 4. As the Fund celebrates its fifteenth anniversary, it continues to be well positioned, through its investments, to capitalize on the current global momentum to end violence against women and girls. Successive General Assembly resolutions adopted as recently as in 2010 refer explicitly to the critical importance of supporting and enhancing the effectiveness of the Fund as a system-wide funding mechanism and reiterate the target, set by the Secretary-General’s campaign “UNiTE to End Violence against Women”, of raising $100 million annually in grantmaking for the Fund by 2015. This $100 million benchmark is linked to the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, highlighting the importance of ending violence against women and girls for the achievement of the Goals. __________________ 1 2 3 2 See World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. See In Pursuit of Justice: Progress of the World’s Women 2011-2012. New York: UN-Women. General Assembly resolutions 61/143, 62/133, 63/155 and 64/137 and Security Council resolutions 1820 (2008) and 1888 (2009). 11-63260