Outcome ECA_D_1.3

Women and girls live a life free from all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful social norms.

The outcome was not achieved, as violence against women and girls remains the most pervasive human rights violation in the region, though some progress was made. Two additional countries in the ECA region ratified the Istanbul Convention . Moldova ratified the Convention on 31st January 2022, and the treaty went into effect on the 1st of May, while Ukraine ratified it on the 18 th of July – 11 years after signing the treaty – and it went into effect on the 1st of November 2022. Thus, as of December 2022, 37 European countries have ratified the Convention, eight of which are within the ECA region - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine. Moreover, in 2022, while EU accession to the Istanbul Convention remained blocked, the von der Leyen Commission proposed new legislation to address VAW at the EU level and included EU accession to the Convention as a priority for 2022. Eight ECA countries have not ratified the Convention yet: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovak Republic, while Türkiye withdrew in July 2021. Several threats to the safety of women and girls emerged and increased during the reporting period. First, the war in Ukraine heightened the risk of conflict-related violence against women and girls, including conflict-related sexual violence and other forms of torture. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect the reliability and modality of protection measures against VAW and essential services for survivors. Despite the persistence of violence and discrimination against women and girls, countries in the region made several notable achievements toward the protection of women and girls and prevention of violence: The Government of Albania launched changes to the Criminal Code to double sentences for serious crimes and remove shortened judgments, including for crimes related to domestic violence and violence against children. The Kosovo Government approved the new Strategy on Protection from Domestic Violence and Violence against Women for 2022-2026 on 26 January 2022. Moreover, policymakers finalized and submitted the draft new Law on Protection from Domestic Violence to the Presidency of Kosovo Parliament on 14 October 2022. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Agency for Gender Equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina committed to undertake a series of actions to collect harmonized and gender-aware data on femicide and to strengthen the femicide watch mandate of the Committee for Monitoring and Reporting on the Istanbul Convention and Femicide in BiH – the first of such committees in the Western Balkans – thereby adopting the recommendations provided by former UN Special Representative on Violence Against Women with the support of UN Women (UNSRVAW). Key regional and governmental actors prioritize femicide prevention and response as a political issue more in the ECA region thanks to the work of UN Women and its partners . Governments and authorities in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia expressed their commitment to eradicating femicide and establishing a femicide watch. The Serbian government also defined femicide as the most extreme manifestation of VAW and established a control mechanism for monitoring and analyzing femicide cases (Femicide Watch) in the Strategy for combating Gender Based Violence. These changes resulted from advocacy using research generated from a framework for understanding the characteristics, causes and patterns of femicide. Governments and civil society in the region accessed transparent and up-to-date information on the femicide epidemic through the first interactive femicide map in the region. Produced by UN Women and partner CSO Femplatz, the map captured more than 100 femicides committed in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia since 2020. The map tracks data on femicide and is a model of a public and transparent tool that may be developed through prospective femicide watches in the region ( more info available here ) . After regional stakeholders attended a presentation of the new UN statistical framework for measuring femicide, they selected Albania and Serbia as pilot countries for the framework’s rollout in 2023. The UN Statistical Commission adopted the framework in early 2022, and regional stakeholders learned about the framework in September through a webinar organized by UN Women. The 2022 UNECE Regional Forum on Sustainable Development included a greater focus on femicide through a side event “One femicide watch in every country to end the shadow pandemic,” co-sponsored by the Government of Spain - the first European Union member state to set up a femicide watch - and the current UNSRVAW. Multi-agency cooperation between healthcare providers and women’s specialist service providers in the Western Balkans improved notably . In three cities in Serbia, there was a 40% increase in doctor referrals for women survivors of violence to women’s CSOs providing specialist services . This increase occurred following meetings with primary healthcare workers to promote referral pathways. In BiH and Serbia, CSOs collaborated with local entities to develop and strengthen protocols and guidelines on referring and treating cases of VAW. These results were achieved through 69 meetings and seven training workshops that reached 735 key stakeholders (healthcare workers, healthcare decisionmakers, ministry representatives, etc.) across seven Western Balkan countries/territories with information on referral pathways, multi-agency cooperation, and effective standards of care for victims of VAW. Based on the progress made to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome remain still applicable. If, as expected, this strategy is successful, more women at risk of violence and subject to discrimination and harmful social norms will be legally protected with strengthened legislation and have access to and benefit services when needed.

Women and girls live a life free from all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful social norms.

Discriminatory gender norms and stereotypes remain highly prevalent in the countries of ECA, manifesting among other things in high prevalence rates of gender-based violence (GBV). GBV remains an urgent concern throughout the region, affecting all segments of society. Beijing+25 reports from member states noted increased national efforts to expand legal protections, enhance support services, and prevent violence through educational campaigns. However, challenges remain in ensuring the implementation of these frameworks, especially in conflict-affected regions such as Ukraine, where the ongoing conflict has exacerbated violence risks for women and girls. Violence is manifested in multiple forms from intimate partner violence to digital harassment. In particular, technology-facilitated VAWG has exacerbated the risks faced by women in public and political life, including journalists, human rights defenders, and politicians, as demonstrated by the troubling increase in online violence. ECARO continues to focus on addressing discriminatory social norms as underlying causes of all forms of gender-based discrimination, including specifically through the EU 4 Gender Equality programme : Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence implemented jointly with UNFPA with the funding from European Union and covering six countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. More than 6 million people have been reached by communications and awareness raising campaigns on elimination of gender stereotypes. According to the Follow-up Assessment on Gender Norms and Stereotypes and initial analysis of the developed monitoring tools, there is an increase of adherence to positive social norms among men and youth covered by the programme. 7 programme partners (mostly civil society organizations) incorporated new monitoring tools produced by the programme to better measure impact and effectiveness of their interventions on promotion of gender equality and addressing discriminatory social norms. 41 programme partners, including civil society, media, private sector, religions and state institutions increased their knowledge on gender-based discrimination and stereotypes. ECARO continues its collaborative relationship with EIGE and Council of Europe (COE). With regards to the latest as observers of the Committee of Experts on combating technology-facilitated violence against women and girls (GEC/PC-eVIO) and with EIGE in the design of the new joint programme EU 4 Gender Equality: Women’s Economic Empowerment and Violence against Women in the Western Balkans funded by the European Commission. The programme, to be jointly implemented with UNDP, will take decisive action to empower women economically in the Western Balkans and to counter the worrying trend of violence against women and girls online . Thus far the original strategy and the Theory of Change (ToC) for this outcome is largely still applicable. However, given the start of a new regional joint programme with UNDP, the ToC and accompanying strategy is being slightly revised for 2025 to allow for greater focus on prevention and response to technology-facilitated violence and leveraging UN Women’s ongoing work on entrepreneurial or entrepreneurship ecosystems. For the interventions of social norms change, UN Women will continue investing in meaningful collaboration and participatory approaches with women-led organizations and civil society organizations aligned with local needs and dealing with backlash, especially as it affects the most marginalized groups.

Women and girls live a life free from all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful social norms.

The outcome was not achieved, as violence against women and girls remains the most pervasive human rights violation in the region, though some progress was made. Around 17,000 women and men reported increased understanding of gender equality, and around 1,730 people have become local advocates for gender equality. More than 21.9 million people from six (6) countries from the ECA region were reached, through a series of innovative social media communications campaigns and in-person events, with messages of equality and the importance of eliminating discriminatory gender stereotypes in all public spheres, preventing VAWG and increasing men’s involvement in fatherhood. UN Women ECA RO implemented a three-year regional Programme “ EU 4 Gender Equality : Together against gender stereotypes and gender-based violence” that challenged discriminatory gender stereotypes (closed in June 2023). It is the first regional programme covering gender equality in the Eastern Partnership Countries (EaP), funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented jointly with UNFPA. Six (6) EaP countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine covered. Based on insights from over 12,000 women and key stakeholders, the study “ The dark side of digitalization : Technology-facilitated violence against women in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” reveals the types and prevalence of technology-facilitated violence against women in 13 countries of the region and its consequences on women and girls’ attitudes, experiences and access to services. The research was committed by UN Women in partnership with the Generation Equality Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence and the Action Coalition on Technology and Innovation for Gender Equality under the leadership of the Republic of Iceland and the Republic of Finland. It maps the existing normative and institutional landscape, along with the role and perspective of relevant stakeholders in providing prevention and support services to survivors of technology-facilitated violence ( more info here ). Women and girls demanding decision-makers to establish a femicide watch (independent body for monitoring femicide), to criminalize femicide, and to control arms more strictly in Serbia. As part of ECA RO UN Women efforts to prevent femicide, a regional media and public advocacy campaign entitled #StopFemicide was launched by CSO partner Femplatz to inform the Albanian, Montenegrin and Serbian public about the prevalence and characteristics of femicide. On social media, the campaign's messages have reached over 300,000 people. Moreover, the first regional research on social and institutional response to femicide in Albania, Montenegro and Serbia outlines country-specific recommendations to prevent femicide; establishing national data collection systems and record-keeping of violence against women and domestic violence, and establishing a femicide watch in each country, followed by a regional one. During the reporting year, UN Women made persisting efforts to keep the criminalization of domestic violence high on the political agenda of Central Asian countries. The Central Asian Alliance to End Gender-Based Violence was officially launched on 27 June 2023 with the support of the Spotlight Regional Programme for Central Asia, funded by the European Union. The Alliance will be instrumental to advance criminalization policies and to work on early detection and to prevention of gender-based violence, as well as to include a wide range of measures related to alternative approaches. Independent evaluation positively assessed the regional EU 4 Gender Equality programme. It also concluded partnering with civil society and women’s organizations was very effective and recommended it for further scaling up. The programme’s stories of personal impact show the effect of the programme in changing social norms at different levels. As a result of the successful implementation of its first phase, the EU 4 Gender Equality programme is granted the second phase starting in January 2024. Following this yet the Toc on EVAW areas is still relevant and ECARO will continue working toward achieving the SDG target 5.1; 5.2 to eliminate all form of discrimination and violence against women and girls everywhere