Seoul (Republic of Korea) Hybrid, 15 May 2022 – The Global Social Work Innovation and Collaboration for a Fair and Inclusive Society forum was hosted by Yonsei University as a joint project between the university’s Graduate School of Social Welfare, the BK21 Four Social Welfare Project and the Center for Social Welfare Research, 13-16 May 2022, with attendants joining both remotely and in person.
The prevention of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), specifically Violence Against Women (VAW), is a serious area of concern globally but particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, and data availability at the national level is extremely limited. As these topics continue to be at the top of the global agenda, it is of paramount importance that all sectors of society come together to advocate for the prevention of VAW and address narratives which seek to delegitimise VAW.
The program offered presentations and panel discussions on building inclusive communities, fostering social support systems, and establishing measures to tackle VAW. The forum was divided into four sessions, grouped according to theme: Perspectives on Building Inclusive Communities, Preventing Violence Against Women, Rising Scholars for Future Social Work, and Outlook on Improving Health and Skills in Practice.
The speakers and panelists of the forum included academics and researchers from Yonsei University and the University of Liverpool, practitioners interested in various aspects of inclusive societies and police force representatives, who shared examples of best practice in data collection and initiatives to tackle inequality and VAW related issues.
The CoE participated in a session on the topic of “Preventing Violence Against Women” to better understand challenges in the Asia-Pacific region and to present UNODC initiatives, methodological tools and data collection methods related to VAW and GBV.Seong Jae Shin, CoE Research Officer, presented on “Equality Through Measurement: Crime and Gender Data in Asia and the Pacific”, addressing the challenges in data collection in the areas of VAW and GBV and presenting the initiatives employed by the CoE for the facilitation of collection of GBV-related data. Following the presentations, Hyun Jung Park, CoE Coordinator, participated in the panel as a discussant, engaging the presenters inquiring about the reliability and quality of the surveys used by the researchers and police force to collect data on VAW.
The forum provided a space to strengthen the partnership between the CoE, academia and practitioners in the field of crime and criminal justice statistics. The CoE plans to continue expanding its partnerships and advocating for the importance of crime and criminal justice statistics as the basis for evidence-based policymaking.
Further information on the CoE can be found here, Twitter @CoE_UNODC and Facebook @UNODC.KOSTAT.CoE.
