On April 23^rd 2019, UN Secretary General has published Resolution 2467 adopted by the Security Council and elaborated following the debate on Women and Peace and Security: sexual violence in conflicts.

By means of this document, the Security Council acknowledges the role of women as agents of peace and security in warring countries as it points at the increasing number of innovative actions and practices implemented by civil society actors so as to end armed conflicts. However, nowadays we are witnessing an intensification of sexual crimes against women all over the world.

During the debate, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Yazidi activist for Human Rights Nadia Murad has called upon a joint action on behalf of the international community aimed at identifying a solution to such a pressing issue. As a matter of facts, when talking about systematic sexual crimes, we shall bear in mind that thousands of Syrian and Iraqi women are constantly raped, violated and enslaved. Survivors of violence who decided to break the silence and ask for justice are often confined in reception camps and do not receive any psychological or financial support.

We recommend you to watch Nadia Murad’s speech in the video (from minute 34:13 onwards).

Among the people who contributed to the debate, we would like to mention Giovanni Buttigieg, permanent deputy representative of Malta to the United Nation, who contributed with his professionalism, commitment and dedication to CESIE’s foundation and development. We invite you to listen to his speech (from minute 3:27:55 onwards).

By adopting this resolution, Member States of UN Security Council committed to acknowledge the role of women in building rightful and sustainable peace processes and conflict resolutions by promoting concrete initiatives focused on their needs.

Thanks to the project implemented by our Rights and Justice Unit, CESIE is dedicated to achieving the following goals:

• preventing sexual violence by advocating women’s right, fighting against sexism, deconstructing gender stereotypes and supporting female survivors of violence so as to empower them and foster their resiliency;
• promoting gender education and training amongst professionals to prevent child exploitation and abuse;
• developing relevant recommendations aimed at improving political strategies seeking to foster economic inclusion and social participation of care leavers and female survivors of violence.

If you want to learn more about our projects on gender issues, please read the following overview. For further information concerning CESIE Rights and Justice Unit, we suggest you contact its Coordinator, Noemi De Luca - noemi.deluca@cesie.org – or write an e-mail to justice@cesie.org.

BASE – Migrant and refugee child-friendly support services in cases of sexual and gender-based violence

Aim of the project: to improve support services in cases of sexual and gender-based violence (migrants/refugees)

1. by giving migrant and refugees women the opportunity of becoming cultural advisors so as to facilitate effective communication with victims of gender-based violence and their families;
2. by implementing a programme aimed at strengthening professionals’ capacity of communicating with migrant and refugee victims of sexual violence.

For further information, please contact: ruta.grigaliunaite@cesie.org

CONVEY – Counteracting sexual violence and harassment: Engaging Youth in schools in digital education on gender stereotyping

Aim of the project: To develop peer-to-peer approaches to education and awareness-raising on sexual violence and harassment against women by training young people on the effects of gender stereotyping and sexualisation in digital media.

The project has come to an end , but we suggest you download the game we have created CONVEY Not A Game, available for computers and mobile devices (Android e iOS). It is a useful educational tool to prevent gender violence and sexual harassment.

For further information, please contact: noemi.deluca@cesie.org

SAFER - Systematic Approaches for Equality of gendeR

Aim of the project: To prevent, encourage reporting and combat gender-based violence (GBV) against children fostering a systematic approach in cultivating life skills, building healthy relationships, adopting and maintaining values, and increasing resilience and personal strength.

Starting from May 2019 we will organise an intensive training targeted at teachers in order to allow them to learn new educational methods designed to address and challenge gender stereotypes in their classes.

For further information, please contact:  ruta.grigaliunaite@cesie.org

SupportVoc – Development of a Generic Support Services Model to enhance the Rights of Victims of Crime

Aim of the project: To guarantee that victims of crime can access services provided under EU Directive ratified by Italy on December, 15^th 2015.

The next project phase will focus on defining joint strategies concerning different service systems and elaborating a list of suggestions and recommendations to be given to European Commission so as to improve the intervention framework.

 For further information, please contact: stefania.zanna@cesie.org

TOLERANT – TransnatiOnaL network for Employment integRAtion of womeN vicTims of trafficking

Aim of the project: To create a network of stakeholders who can share good practices and promote a dialogue on how to integrate female victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation (VoT) in the labour market, so as to:  

1. foster access of women VoT to gender-specific services with particular focus on employment support;
2.  increase awareness among employers, recruiters, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders on the importance of facilitating access of women VoT to the labour market

For further information, please contact: eileen.quinn@cesie.org