[{"bbox": [96, 151, 1123, 208], "category": "Text", "text": "National Action Plan on Prevention of Violence against Women and Children (NAPVAWC) and its Monitoring and Evaluation framework awaits approval."}, {"bbox": [85, 247, 341, 279], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2.2 Problem Analysis"}, {"bbox": [96, 292, 1135, 480], "category": "Text", "text": "**High prevalence of GBV is acute in public spaces, workplaces and at education institutions of Bangladesh.**\nSexual assault is today the most reported source of violence over time in Bangladesh, accounting for at least 3 in 5 reported incidents.¹⁴ Recent studies conducted by Care and Karmajibi Nari have shown that about 84.7% RMG woman workers reported experiencing verbal harassment, while 71.3% mental harassment, 20% physical harassment, 12.7% sexual harassment, and 52% experienced physical harassment from supervisors. At educational institutions, around 74% female students in Bangladesh face violence and harassment according to a study conducted by Plan International."}, {"bbox": [96, 504, 1135, 718], "category": "Text", "text": "In 2010, the High Court Division of the Supreme Court issued guidelines to prevent sexual harassment at the public and work place and stated that any kind of physical, mental or sexual harassment of women and girls at their work, educational and public places, including roads, was a criminal offence, punishable by fines and/or imprisonment. In 2018, the High Court issued another judgment on rape and sexual violence, where it prohibited the ‘two finger test’ on rape survivors to determine the occurrence of rape. It also provided guidelines on conducting medico-legal tests on rape victims and the responsibilities of the police in supporting victims. In 2022, the Amendment of Evidence Bill repealed the provisions that allowed questioning about the character of a rape survivor during cross-examinations in court and included a provision allowing the submission of digital evidence before a court."}, {"bbox": [96, 743, 1135, 931], "category": "Text", "text": "Despite these steps, **discriminatory laws and provisions remain in the national legislation, such as different definitions of a ‘girl child’ and ‘boy child’ in various acts, and monitoring and implementation remain insufficient.** The formation of complaints committees and the installation of complaints boxes at educational institutions and workplaces as directed by the High Court has rarely been enforced. This often prevents girls and women from attending schools or work. As per the directives of the High Court and the Concluding Observations of the CEDAW Committee in 2016, a comprehensive law on Sexual harassment was drafted in 2010, but has been pending for adoption."}, {"bbox": [96, 954, 1135, 1171], "category": "Text", "text": "**In addition, national and local institutions lack capacities in mainstreaming gender and GBV prevention and response.** The Beijing+25 review and the CEDAW Committee in its Concluding Observations (2016) recommended strengthening gender-responsive financing as a tool to advance gender equality and emphasised the importance of fortifying the institutional capacity of the National Women Machinery.¹⁵ Further, the gender focal points/desks of different Ministries and Divisions have a weak institutional capacity in terms of their ability to design and implement programmes.¹⁶ Moreover, VAW Committees¹⁷ or NNPCs at district and upazila levels are largely not functional or not sufficiently functional, and no activities are tabled in the field to prevent violence against women and girls.¹⁸"}, {"bbox": [96, 1194, 1135, 1355], "category": "Text", "text": "**There is also a clear lack of capacities to implement and monitor gender-responsive budgeting,** which limits the efficient use of national resource allocation for GBV prevention. Regarding Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB), it has been found that the existing mechanism is not yet fully functional as several ministries effectively lack the capacity to conduct gender-responsive planning, which affects resource allocation, including for GBV prevention. There is also an absence of systematic monitoring for the GRB allocation/expenditure by the Ministry of Finance. At the Upazila Parishads, 3% of the annual budget is required to be allocated for women's"}, {"bbox": [85, 1448, 656, 1472], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁴ Bangladesh Peace Observatory (BPO): http://peaceobservatory-cgs.org/#/"}, {"bbox": [85, 1470, 1144, 1513], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁵ Concluding observations on the eighth periodic report of Bangladesh (CEDAW/C/BGD/CO/8) as cited in UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note 2022-2025"}, {"bbox": [85, 1513, 1144, 1558], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁶ Voluntary National Reviews 2020 Bangladesh (VNR 2020) \"Accelerated action and transformative pathways: realizing the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development\" as cited in UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note 2022-2025"}, {"bbox": [85, 1557, 1144, 1624], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁷ MOWCA issued a circular to form/reform *Nari o Shishu Nirjaton Protirodh Committees* (NNPC) in every District, Sub-District and Union. The aims of the committees are to support the central violence against women and children prevention cell of the country, to combat violence against women and girls, and prevent child marriage in the country."}, {"bbox": [85, 1622, 906, 1644], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁸ UN Women Assessment on the Effectiveness of the Nari O Shishu Nirjaton Protirodh Committees (NNPC)"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1144, 1707], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 6 of 27"}]