Jesmin Aktar lives in a village of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. She regularly attends UN Women's "Shanti Khana" [Multi-Purpose Women's Centre – MPWC] learning sessions and is dedicated to improving her life by pursuing a challenging job and contributing to society.

In the past 18 months, by trapping women with their abusers, COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns have worsened the already-widespread violence against women while preventing many of them from getting help. But even those who do manage to contact the police come up against another long-standing challenge: a culture and system that treats the survivor as a big part of the problem.

A two-day session at UN Women’s Suva office in Fiji helped Tuvalu’s state delegation prepare to face the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women in February. The five-member delegation (pictured below) was heading to Geneva to take part in a constructive dialogue with the Committee following the submission of their latest report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). ...