About the Trust Fund
We are learning how to stop the violence. These projects reflect the increasing committment that exists worldwide to protect women’s rights, provide services for victims and punish crimes of violence against women and girls. —Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM
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The UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence Against Women was established by General Assembly resolution 50/166 in 1996 and is managed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). In establishing the Trust Fund, the General Assembly highlighted eliminating violence against women as critical to accelerating the implementation of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. The Trust Fund is the only multilateral grant-making mechanism that supports local, national and regional efforts to combat violence.
Since it began operations in 1997, the Trust Fund has distributed nearly US$13 million to 226 innovative programmes to address violence against women in more than 100 countries. Raising awareness of women's human rights, these UNIFEM-supported efforts have:
- linked activists and advocates from all parts of the world;
- shown how small, innovative projects impact laws, policies and attitudes; and
- helped break the wall of silence, moving the issue onto public agendas everywhere.
With grants ranging from $25,000 to $125,000, trust fund projects conduct public education and awareness campaigns, build coalitions, involve law-enforcement, judicial and government agencies, train educators, healthcare personnel and police officials to respond to and prevent violence. Many projects strive to alter community attitudes and involve men as allies.
» Please make a donation to the Trust Fund
» Complete list of Trust Fund grantees
Report of the United Nations Development Fund for Women on the Elimination of Violence Against Women: Note by the Secretary-General. This report documents the activities undertaken by UNIFEM in 2006 to help eliminate violence against women. It highlights, in particular, activities funded through the Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women, administered by UNIFEM.
Stories about Trust Fund Grantees
- Cambodia: Radio Broadcasts Break the Silence [ eng ]
- Commonwealth of Indepedendent States: Shining Light on Human Trafficking [ eng ]
- Latin America: Making Cities Safer [ eng ]
- Nepal: Sending Messages Across Mountains [ eng ]
- Occupied Palestinian Territory: Chronicling a Tradition to Put an End to Murder [ eng ]
- Rwanda: Women Ex-Combatants Advocate for Peace and Rights [ eng ]
- South Africa: Making a Dramatic Link between Violence and HIV/AIDS [ eng ]
- Southern Africa: Removing Gender Biases from Judicial Processes [ eng ]
- More “Voices from the Field”
