UN Women in Aceh

In post-tsunami and post armed conflict in Aceh, UN Women programs focuses in engendering post-disaster recovery and peace building processes. UN Women has been focusing on the following:

• Safe Community Initiative finding community solutions to violence against women in Aceh

  My case was settled sometime ago in my village, but I felt dissatisfied that I did not get justice. My family and neighbours still blame meI got some amount of money as compensation, but that is not enough. The perpetrator should be punished and realize what he did was a mistake (testimony from a domestic violence victim during focus group discussions with RPuK).

  Aceh, Indonesia - In partnership with UN Women, non-government organization Relawan Perempuan untuk Kemanusiaan (RpuK) launched a pilot project in July 2010 called Safe Community Initiative developing protection mechanisms for women at the community level. This project is implemented in Rembele Village (Bener Meriah district) and Keupula Village (Pidie District), Aceh Province. The project establishes a Watch Mechanism in the community that responds to incidences of violence against women in the community and builds the capacity of service providers, including counselors, hospital attendants, police and legal practitioners. The violence watch mechanism is developed to prevent violence against women and ensure protection of survivors rights to justice and fair settlement of violence against women cases.

  Rembele and Keupula were selected as project sites due to the high prevalence of violence against women. In 2009, 53 cases of violence against women including domestic and sexual violence were reported at Rembele village, which has a total population of 1,023 people. While 26 cases of violence against women were reported at Keupula Village which has a total population of 1,451 people. Both villages were affected by armed conflict and majority of the villagers work as farmers.

• Strengthening Women's Legal Rights and Access to Justice with partners in Aceh with CEDAW as the reference, to integrate gender equality principles into the Law on Governing Aceh (LoGA). The key results are the passing of gender responsive qanuns, particularly the Qanun on Execution of Elections, the Qanun on Local Political Party and the landmark Qanun on Women’s Empowerment. UN Women also helped develop the capacity of partners, including Syariah Court Judges, to use CEDAW as a framework for the drafting and review of qanuns, and develop knowledge on the convergence of gender equality principles in CEDAW and Islam through intensive training workshops.
• For Gender and Governance, Peace and Security, UN Women worked to integrate gender equality perspective into all aspects of the peace building effort through capacity building and technical assistance for provincial government, especially Bappeda and the women’s machinery in Aceh. Key results are the development of a Provincial Gender Policy, principles of SCR 1325 (women in conflict) is promoted among key stakeholders working on peace building in Aceh and capacity among women ex-combatant on economic empowerment and legal rights are built.
• UN Women works to eliminate violence against women in Aceh, focusing on domestic violence and post-conflict violence, piloting community level initiatives such as Safe Community in two villages, Bener Meriah and Pidie, creating an enabling environment for survivors.
• UN Women has supported and mobilized women’s human rights advocates in Aceh to ensure gender responsive recovery that reflects the needs of women and men alike, by assisting government and NGOs in development planning by means of increasing participation of women and providing sex-disaggregated data.