The UNDP Asia Pacific Gender Equality Dispatch #6

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04 The UNDP Asia Pacific Gender Equality Dispatch November 2020 VPU officer Abelina Ximenes has participated in training to help her enhance her investigation and case handling skills. Photo: Maria Lopes / UNDP Timor-leste The following five articles will present the initiatives taken by Country offices in the Pacific to implement the Global Spotlight Initiative in an effort to address violence against women and girls. The Spotlight Initiative (SI) is a partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG), including harmful practices (HP). It is backed by an unprecedented EUR 500M investment from the EU and aims at achieving transformational change. Acknowledgement and awareness: the first steps to ending gender-based violence in Timor-Leste News headlines from Timor-Leste in October 2020 carried grim statistics on gender-based violence (GBV) in the small island nation. Despite improvements in public safety since 2007, historical colonial violence and traditional family-based social structures have influenced the normalisation of GBV, especially against women and girls.
The UNDP Asia Pacific Gender Equality Dispatch November 2020 05 Figures released by the Directorate- General of Statistics show that in 2019 case numbers of sexual abuse of minors increased five-fold to 80, while rape cases more than tripled to 55. The statistics also revealed 28.6% of the country’s prison population were convicted of sexual violence crimes 1 The statistics, however, reflect a rise in reporting rather than an acute rise in cases, say officers from the Timor- Leste National Police (PNTL) Vulnerable Persons’ Unit (VPU), who are on the frontlines of this critical human rights issue. “The numbers are increasing because people now understand that any domestic violence is a crime that has to be reported,” said Abelina Ximenes (38), an investigator with the VPU in Baucau. In November she received training on investigating sexual assault and child abuse - supported by the joint European Union-United Nations Spotlight Initiative and Australian Federal Police (AFP). Launched in March 2020 in Timor- Leste, the Spotlight Initiative will contribute $15 million over three years to combat GBV, with a focus on three municipalities – Ermera, Bobonaro and Viqueque. As a part of its Spotlight support, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is supporting the VPU to enhance its public communications, case investigation and case processing procedures and capabilities. This includes supporting the construction of safe houses for victims at VPU offices, increased referral network awareness materials, and during Covid-19, personal protective equipment (PPE) to enable safe survivor-police interaction. Under Timorese law, gender-based violence and sexual assault are public crimes that must be investigated when reported, even if a claim is withdrawn. Bernie McEvoy, a volunteer with Juventude ba Dezenvolvimentu Nasional (JDN) who support youth education around GBV, said that despite relatively good legal foundations, awareness of the illegality of GBV is very low among the male and female youth she works with. Abelina Ximenes at the GBV safe house in Baucau. Photo: Alex Ray / UNDP Timor-Leste
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The UNDP Asia Pacific Gender Equality Dispatch #6

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