Report – Pledge on Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Emergencies – Focus on Situations of Conflict and Disasters

الإجراءات المتخذة:

(1) Strengthening SGBV Programming Responses 

Through its humanitarian assistance funding, Canada provides unearmarked support to agencies with protection mandates, such as the ICRC, UNHCR, and UNFPA, which includes responding to sexual violence and gender-based violence as core aspects of their activities. In addition, Canada has funded multi-year stand-alone initiatives to support prevention and response activities, as well as activities to help improve the management and delivery of sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response. Throughout the reporting period, the GoC consistently increased its funding, and/or programmatic support, for both targeted and mainstreamed actions addressing SGBV. Examples include: 

• By FY 2021/22, 99% of Canada’s humanitarian assistance projects either fully, or partially, integrated gender equality considerations, surpassing the GoC’s target of 80% by 2021 and far above the GoC’s baseline of 53% prior to the reporting period. The integration of gender equality into humanitarian assistance projects is an essential pre-requisite for the successful prevention of, and response to, SGBV in emergencies.  
• Throughout the reporting period, the GoC continued to support high impact projects to prevent and/or address SGBV in conflicts and disasters, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example: 
  • In 2022, the GoC provided CAD $329.3M in funding to UN agencies with prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence as core aspects of their activities.  The GoC also provided over $25.5M in NGO funding for specialized GBV prevention and response services and sexual and reproductive health services in emergencies, including multi-year funding for GBV prevention and service delivery. For example, the UN Children’s Fund Multi-country project (2022-2024) of $27.35M in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Syria regional, and Yemen, provided 21 million children and women with access to GBV risk mitigation, prevention or response interventions, including the strengthening of monitoring and reporting mechanisms. 

• • In 2022, the GoC provided $14M to Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) working to address GBV through the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women’s emergency COVID response, of which CAD $2M is for institutional support. In their previous reporting cycle, the Trust Fund supported 186 projects aimed at preventing and addressing violence against women and girls in 70 countries and territories, and in humanitarian settings across five regions, the majority of recipients (62.4%) being WROs. 

• • The GoC continued to provide support to the Red Cross Movement, including to the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC) Special Appeal on the prevention and reduction of sexual violence in armed conflict situations; including $4.5M in funding in 2020. In 2024, Canada again provided $4M in support of the Sexual Violence Global Response. This funding contributes to the ICRC’s capacity to improve delivery of services and staff capacity related to addressing sexual violence. The GoC also allocated $12.5 from 2019 to 2024 through the Readiness for Emergency Response Program to, in part, ensure proper training for prevention and mitigation was available to Canadian Red Cross delegates as well as the development of protection-sensitive Emergency Health Units to deploy in emergencies. This includes the provision and availability of SGBV medical care such as post exposure prophylaxis, mental health services and safe abortion care as well as training to further the delegates capacity to use the Dignity, Access, Participation and Safety Framework, mainstream SGBV and Safeguarding into sector specific emergency activities. 

• The GoC also continued implementing Canada’s second National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2017-2022) during the reporting period. Addressing gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) was a main objective of this action plan. Examples of activities implemented include:  

• • Supporting the deployment of CRSV experts through UN Women and supporting investigations and accountability processes in several countries, including Myanmar, Syria, DRC, South Sudan, Burundi, Yemen and Mali.  Support was also given to UNDP to fight impunity and support survivors of sexual violence in the DRC. 

• • Implementing pre-deployment training for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), that includes lessons on human rights, protection of civilians, WPS, conflict-related sexual violence, child protection, sexual exploitation and abuse, and human trafficking, based upon the training material provided by the UN DPKO Integrated Training Service.  

• • Providing Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) training courses to foreign militaries that specifically integrate the protection of women, children, and vulnerable populations into the curriculum. Examples include: a five-day workshop in person or 10-day workshop online on Integration of Women and Gender Perspectives in the Armed Forces in various locations worldwide (attended by approximately 40-50 foreign military members at each session); a UN Staff Officer course, and a UN Military Expert on Mission course. 

(2) Strengthening SGBV Policy and Advocacy 

Throughout the reporting period, the GoC also consistently advocated for better prevention of, and response to, SGBV in conflict and disasters. Examples include: 

• Between 2019 and 2023, Canada explicitly raised SGBV in emergencies in over 60 events, statements, speeches and interventions to UN Executive boards and other multilateral flora. This was well above the 2017-18 baseline of 13 events and in addition to Canada’s continual advocacy, in international fora, for the need for the humanitarian system to better meet the specific needs of women and girls in humanitarian settings, including in the negotiations of resolutions and at high-level ministerial events with humanitarian stakeholders.  

• Canada leveraged its position as a top humanitarian donor on the governance mechanisms of UN and multilateral partners to advocate for all partners to ensure that humanitarian programming mitigated SGBV and was prioritized as part of all humanitarian response efforts. For example, through its chairpersonship of the Pooled Fund Working Group in FY 2022/23, Canada played a leadership role in revising the Country-Based Pooled Fund Global Guidelines; through which Canada prioritized the inclusion of dedicated thematic sections on SGBV and GE.  
• In 2019/2020, Canada led the Call to Action on Protection from GBV in Emergencies, which allowed an increased influence on collective efforts to mitigate, prevent and respond to SGBV in emergencies and to elevate this issue in multilateral fora. Though Canada transferred leadership of the Call to Action to Denmark in 2021, the Canada-led 2021-2025 strategic Road Map for SGBV prevention and response continued to be a valuable tool in addressing SGBV in emergencies at the global scale; strengthening its focus on gender equality, empowerment of women and girls, intersectionality, sexual and reproductive health services, localization and accountability. 

Finally, The GoC also continued to work to disseminate information on existing legal provisions that prohibit SGBV as widely as possible in military instruction and training, throughout the reporting period. The GoC continues to ensure that prohibitions against SGBV, as well as appropriate responses to instances of violations, are fully integrated into doctrine and operation plans, including for partnered military operations.  

• • Code of Conduct training is provided to all CAF members, who are expected to implement the code during all operations abroad and during peace support operations.  

• • In 2021, the Office of the Judge Advocate General (OJAG) of the Canadian Armed Forces contributed to the ICRC’s efforts to update the Commentary to the Fourth Geneva Convention by providing a peer reviewer. The Fourth Geneva Convention addresses the protection of civilians during wartime and contains several provisions on the protection of women and other groups at risk of experiencing conflict-related SGBV.  

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