This Background Paper was prepared to inform discussions at an Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on prevention of violence against women and girls, convened for 17–20 September 2012 in Bangkok, as part of the preparations for the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).1 It analyses global progress, challenges and gaps in prevention of violence against women and girls, and identifies key guiding principles and promising practice examples.2 It makes initial indicative recommendations for international, regional and national stakeholders – particularly Governments as they have the primary responsibility for prevention of violence against women and girls – for further discussion and finalisation at
the EGM itself. The Paper focuses on emerging evidence and practice for the development of holistic, multidimensional and
long-term approaches to prevention, and highlights the responsibility of States to strengthen and invest in such
approaches as part of their human rights obligations towards women and girls. Strategies for prevention of violence against women and girls in situations where States are not functioning effectively, are fragile or are in transition, including conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian settings – while having some commonalities with the practices referred to here – will necessarily be of a different order, and may be driven by different actors (e.g. humanitarian relief agencies). There is very little research and practice to draw upon regarding effective
prevention of violence against women and girls in such settings,3 and the need for further work in this area is identified as a key gap in this Paper. Therefore, the bulk of the practice, evidence and recommendations referred to here is for stable situations where the State is in a position to lead long-term, multi-sectoral policy and programming. (from the Introduction)

Background to this paper: In accordance with its multi-year programme of work for 2010-2014, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will consider ‘Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls” as its priority theme during its fifty-seventh session in 2013.

In order to contribute to a full understanding of the issue and to assist the Commission in its deliberations, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO), convened an Expert Group Meeting on prevention of violence against women and girls, at Bangkok, Thailand, from 17 to 20 September 2012. Use the website link to access other papers prepared for this meeting.