UN Women: National Consultant -National Action Plan on Ending Violence against Women, Thailand, Home Based

Background/Context

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN), works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls, the empowerment of women, and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the efforts of the UN system to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women has a universal mandate that encompasses a normative, an operational/programmatic as well as a coordination role, all of which are closely linked with its unique structure. At the core of its mandate, UN Women plays a leading role in supporting governments in delivering on their gender equality and empowerment of women (GEEW) commitments in the SDGs. UN Women is mandated to stimulate and coordinate improved action on gender equality across the whole UN system.

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is the most pervasive human rights violation worldwide. Nearly thirty years after the Beijing Platform for Action, despite unprecedented momentum and commitments to eliminate VAWG, the prevalence has remained persistent. Global emergencies, crises, and conflict have further intensified the drivers and risk factors of VAWG, and digitalization has exacerbated existing forms of violence and led to the proliferation of new forms. In addition, women and girls are likely to experience a continuum of gender-based violence at all stages of migration, which might include bullying as well as verbal, physical and psychological abuse, and sexual violence (including trafficking for sexu