26 11 13 On International Day, UN Urges Renewed Efforts to End Violence Against Women, Girls

"Violence
against women and girls directly affects individuals while harming our common
humanity," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for
the Day, which this year focuses on the theme of raising awareness by wearing
the colour orange.

Mr.
Ban applauded leaders who are helping to enact and enforce laws and change
mindsets, and paid tribute to the heroes who help victims heal and become agents
of change. Among those, Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who the UN chief met last month, and who
in turn, is inspired by the courage of the women he
treats.

In
her first message for the Day as UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka, urged world leaders to "mount a response that is proportionate to
the violence threatening the lives of women and girls."

"We
need education in schools that teaches human rights and mutual respect, and that
inspires young people to be leaders for equality," she said in a video message,
adding that to be effective, prevention to must address gender inequality as the
root cause of violence.

Speaking
to journalists in New York, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri
called gender-based violence a "gross human rights violation" and a
"pandemic".

Wearing
orange scarfs uniformly with the other panelists to call attention to the orange
theme, she noted that violence takes many forms – physical, psychological,
economic and sexual – and that it is more dangerous to be a woman in conflict
and post-conflict situations than to be a soldier, given the use of rape as a
war tool.

She
also called attention to the most common place for violence against women and
girls – the home – which is the place they are supposed to be the
safest.

Journalists
also heard from Sebastiano Cardi, Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN,
who noted that while he was the only man on the panel, the issue mainly concerns
men since they are traditionally the perpetrators of the
violence.

Later
today at the UN Headquarters, Italian actors will perform Serena Dandini's
'Wounded to Death', which consists of monologues of women killed by a husband, a
partner, a lover or an "ex".

Ms.
Dandini said she wrote the play because she was "upset" at the enormous problem
all over the world of violence against women and girls which is "underestimated
or considered a folkloristic side effect of country life."

She
said in the briefing that through the theatre, she wanted to raise some messages
and create a rise of conscience that would start from the stomach, and travel on
to the heart and the brain.

More
than 603 million women live in countries where domestic violence is not
considered a crime, according to the UN Development Programme
(UNDP).

"This
is not acceptable: better laws and their enforcement are needed," said Helen
Clark, UNDP Administrator. She called for law enforcement and judicial systems
to work together with governments, civil society and international partners to
tackle the root causes of violence against women, support victims, and bring
perpetrators to justice.

Meanwhile,
the UNDP reported today that gender-based discrimination remains the single most
widespread driver of inequalities.

According
to the 'Regional Human Development Report (HDR) 2013-2014 Citizen Security with
a Human Face: evidence and proposals for Latin America', gender-based violence
contributes to insecurity in Latin America and is a persistent threat and
obstacle to human development, public health and human
rights.

While
the evidence linking gender-based violence and poverty grows, so does a global
call to include men's voices in the solution to violence against women. A recent
UN study carried out in the Asia Pacific region found that of the 10,000 men
surveyed, nearly half reported using physical and/or sexual violence against a
female partner.

The
study recommends that development interventions should address social norms
related to the acceptability of violence and dominant gender stereotypes, as
well as focusing on ending impunity for perpetrators.

This
same message is set out in the report 'A Million Voices: The World We
Want', which
synthesizes the results of an unprecedented global consultation involving over a
million people across all countries and backgrounds on what the world's future
development agenda should look like.

It
states that the current anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG) are silent on violence against women and girls, even though one of
the eight goals is on gender, according to the UN agency.

"As
we prepare to craft a post-2015 development agenda, violence against women and
girls remains an enormous global problem that must be overcome," said John
Ashe, the current President of the General Assembly.

Noting
that the international community is crafting a post-2015 development agenda, he
added that "no sustainable development agenda can be achieved without ending
this global violation of human rights, without ending all violence against all
women and girls in every country in the world."

The
UN General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the
Elimination of Violence against Women in a 1999 resolution inviting governments,
international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to
"organize activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem on that
day."

The
date was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the assassination of three
Mirabal sisters, who were political activists in the Dominican Republic, on
orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo on 25 November
1960.

The
Day marks the start of 16 days of activism, culminating with Human Rights Day on
10 December.

Given
the timing of the 16 days and the focus on raising awareness with the colour
orange, this year's official theme is "Orange the World in 16
Days."

Today's
events are part of the landmark UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign.
Launched by Mr. Ban in 2008, it has gathered UN agencies and offices to
galvanize action across the UN system to prevent and punish violence against
women.

He
also noted the importance of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women,
the world's leading global grant-making mechanism exclusively dedicated to
addressing violence against women and girls, administered by UN
Women.

Mr.
Ban called for financial support to the Fund, the demand for whose grants have
more than doubled in the recent years while the amount it has distributed
diminished by 60 per cent.

"I
appeal to all partners to help meet this vast unmet demand for resources to
further advance efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls," he
said.