PROJECT: UN Action Against Sexual Violence

UNICEF welcomes the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of a resolution calling for increased protection from sexual violence for women and children in conflict countries. Sexual violence is a horrific violation of human rights and a despicable weapon of war used against women and children. The resolution sets in place mechanisms that should contribute to ending impunity, while also calling for increased attention towards building international and national capacity to provide the full range of services that survivors of sexual violence need.

Resolution 1888 is an important step, adding additional impetus to international efforts to stamp out sexual violence, ensuring that sexual violence is taken into account in United Nations-sponsored peace negotiations, and strengthening accountability for violations through the new reporting mechanism it establishes. More specifically, operative paragraph 26 calls for a proposal within three months on the development of a monitoring and reporting mechanism, and it also calls for a timely gaps analysis of the UN system.

UNICEF will engage a consultant for a period of 4 months to assist the UN Action network to finalize a set of indicators to gage programmatic response to sexual violence, and to develop and negotiate proposals for the Secretary General to establish a proposal for a monitoring and reporting mechanism that can be used at country level to ensure that information on the indicators is collected, analyzed and reported upon.

This work will be undertaken in full collaboration with the UN Action network, and in close consultation with the Gender-based Violence (GBV) Area of Responsibility (AoR) Working Group. The proposed mechanism for monitoring and reporting in relation to Resolution 1888 is likely to build upon the MRM mechanism developed for Resolutions 1612/1882 at country level, thus, the consultant's work will include an in-depth reflection on how a monitoring and reporting mechanism for Resolution 1888 can be linked to Resolutions 1612/1882. This will also include reflection on how the issue of sexual violence can be best integrated into the action plans called for in Resolutions 1612/1882.