Director-General/Executive Director
Ambassador Holgate,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to be here because this issue touches all of us.
Gender-based violence occurs in every country and every community, and as the Ambassador said, it affects not just everyone, men and women, boys and girls, but it happens everywhere, in countries North and South, rich and poor.
I would like to thank the United States, as well as UNODC’s Regional Office for Southern Africa, for bringing us together around this important topic.
Violence against women and girls is a monstrous violation of human rights that is rooted in gender inequality, unequal power relations and harmful social norms.
Women account for six out of ten homicide victims killed by intimate partners or family members.
And as Ambassador Holgate has noted, an estimated one in three women worldwide has experienced sexual or other forms of violence.
Yet crimes involving violence against women and girls remain under-reported and unlikely to end in conviction in many countries.
Survivors of gender-based violence often face significant barriers to justice. These may include gaps in criminal law and procedure, as well as criminal justice institutions that are ill-equipped to respond to their needs. And there are many social biases.
When survivors engage with the police and criminal justice system, all too frequently they face demeaning gender stereotypes and victim blaming, resulting in further victimization and trauma.
So we must do more to ensure that survivors have equal access to justice and that criminal justice institutions fully respond to their needs and sensitivities, and with respect for their dignity.
One important step is empowering women working within the criminal justice system to be agents of change themselves.
Women police officers and judges bring different perspectives and experiences to gender-based violence, and survivors often feel more comfortable talking to women officials. A positive initial contact with police can encourage survivors to trust the system and pursue justice.
UNODC’s “Women in Justice / for Justice” campaign supports increasing women’s representation and leadership in the justice sector because it can lead to more effective, victim-centered responses to crime, as well as greater accountability.
We also need to build the capacity of all criminal justice practitioners to prevent and respond to gender-based violence.
UNODC is doing its part. Since 2010, we have supported over 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to strengthen their crime prevention and criminal justice responses to gender-based violence.
We offer targeted technical assistance to build the capacity of criminal justice practitioners, including through our new Global Programme on People-centered Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Reform.
Allow me to mention a few recent examples:
In 2021, UNODC trained the first-ever cadre of women police officers in Balochistan, Pakistan, as first responders to incidents of gender-based violence.
In 2022, we trained over 17,500 Mexican police officers and first responders on early detection and referral of gender-based violence cases in order to promote investigation and prevent escalation to femicide.
And in my home country, Egypt, UNODC supported the national Forensic Medicine Authority by training 100 forensic doctors and establishing and equipping specialized clinics to provide medical and psychological care to survivors of gender-based violence. These steps also increase the reliability of evidence in rape cases.
UNODC also promotes multisectoral approaches and inter-institutional collaboration, including by partnering with civil society organizations and other stakeholders in society.
For instance, we facilitated the creation of a national inter-institutional coordination mechanism in Bolivia, and over 140 multi-sector provincial gender-based violence response teams in Viet Nam. And we are developing a protocol for cross-sectoral coordination with traditional leaders in South Africa.
But good practices go beyond recruiting women into the police and judiciary and building institutional capacities.
We need to take steps to break the cycle of violence itself, starting at a very early age with education of both boys and girls. Education is key, economic empowerment of women is key, and a culture of lawfulness is key.
In addition, experience shows that providing essential health and social services as well as to access to justice can help reduce violence against women and girls. Collaboration among these sectors and comprehensive, coordinated responses have an even greater impact.
Collaboration and a whole-of-society approach are fostered by femicide review committees, an emerging good practice that facilitates understanding of why gender-related killings happen and taking steps that could prevent them. I look forward to a fruitful discussion of UNODC’s background paper on femicide review committees during this session of the CCPCJ.
We also need to listen to survivors. Protection and assistance must take their experience into account, and they should be a key part of the equation at every step. If we are serious about transformative change, we must include the perspectives of survivors.
And we must recognize that women with multiple vulnerabilities face added challenges. They need support that is not only gender sensitive but intersectional. For example, support should be tailored to the needs of survivors who have disabilities; or who use drugs; or who live in conflict situations.
Our responses to gender-based violence should be based on solid, scientific evidence. So the more we can expand the existing knowledge base, particularly to address regional gaps in data collection and analysis, the better we can inform policies and tailor responses.
By working together, we can ensure that survivors of gender-based violence receive the help and support they need. They deserve nothing less.
Thank you.