Statement of the UN-Women, March 28, 2016

I will start with women’s situation rooms, which monitor and prevent election-related violence. In the past five years, women’s situation rooms have been established in Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Uganda. The model is being replicated in a growing list of countries across the African continent, with our support. These mechanisms are established during the electoral period to train and deploy female observers and monitors, receive and analyse hundreds of complaints and reports of violence or intimidation, and refer those to the relevant authorities for follow-up. Often, nationally renowned women are mobilized to engage with heads of political parties, security sector institutions, and leaders of faithbased entities to respond to situations as they arise. They save lives, diffuse and de-escalate dangerous situations. They support women candidates and fight discrimination against women in the electoral process and gender-based election violence and harassment.