A Practical Guide: Developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for a Coordinated Response to Violence against Women, including women migrant workers

This guidance for Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) is an essential tool to make sure a coordinated response to VAW, including women migrant workers, is put in place. Because of the multi-faceted nature of VAW and the specific challenges and needs of women migrant workers, coordinated approaches to addressing it are considered more effective than when different actors work in isolation to address the issue. To be most effective, coordinated approaches to VAW including women migrant workers’ responses require clearly defined SOPs in line with global guidance on quality coordinated responses. SOPs should be also in line with international standards and approaches on labour migration including International Labour Standards and the UN Convention of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Family.

The development of the SOPs guidance is the outcome of in-depth cooperation and consultation with partners across countries in ASEAN and in particular Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. This guidance for SOPs is designed for service providers, based on service providers’ experiences and lessons learnt and is not meant to be static. It must be regularly updated to ensure the referral pathways are functioning and relevant to the current context and situation of women subject to violence, including women migrant workers. This includes during times of crisis or during pandemics such as COVID-19. In these times the SOPs must be reviewed to ensure services are operational and function regularly.

This SOPs guidance was developed as part of the Safe and Fair Programme: Realizing women migrant workers’ rights and opportunities in the ASEAN region (2018–22). Safe and Fair is part of the multi-year EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls, funded by the European Union, and is implemented by ILO and UN Women in collaboration with UNODC. It delivers technical assistance and support with the overall objective of making labour migration safe and fair for all women in the ASEAN region.