Violence and Justice in Jordan:
In February, UN Women concluded a study in partnership with the Arab Women Legal Network on the Jordanian justice sector and violence against women and girls. A third of Jordanian women experience physical violence while almost 10% are subjected to sexual violence.
The study has found that only 3% of women survivors of violence turn to the police. The research also concluded that the two most significant reasons for this low rate are the lack of awareness on legal procedures and protections, and the social stigma associated with gender-based violence.
The study provides needed evidence to influence UN Women’s ongoing partnership with the Jordanian Ministry of Justice to improve women’s ability to turn to the justice system to report violence and seek retribution.
Why we do it? Like an epidemic, gender inequality must be understood for cures to be found. One of the main elements of UN Women’s mandate is to generate and disseminate knowledge about gender issues. This element is key to designing evidence-based programmes with real life impact and to serve as advocacy tools to inspire action.
Status of Women in Tunisia
In April, UN Women presented the findings of two significant studies on the status of women in Tunisia in partnership with the National Institute of Statistics (INS) with the generous support of the European Union.
The first tackled the detailed results and analysis of the General census of Population and Housing- 2014, the first to be conducted by the INS, from a gender perspective and led to detailed policy recommendations to further gender equality in Tunisia.
The second was a comprehensive desegregated data collection of gender indicators in Tunisia for 2015 evaluating the country’s progress against international norms and standards. This evaluation will be conducted annually and all resulting databases and findings will be made available to the public online.
Earlier in March, UN Women had co-launched another study in Tunisia in partnership with the Research, Studies, Documentation and Information on Women (CREDIF) and the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that serves as an inventory of inequality and discrimination against women in the Tunisian laws covering women’s political, civil, family, economic and social rights as well as women’s right to safety.
Workshop organized by UN Women's Empower Women in Cairo. Photo: UN Women/Emad Karim
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