Women's Rights

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

by Jen Nedeau

categories: Crime, Global Womens Rights

Published November 24, 2009 @ 10:27AM PT

• 6236 Views

Violence against women includes sex trafficking, honor killings, domestic abuse, female genital mutilation, violence against migrant workers, rape, and torture. In recognition of the prevalence of these problems, in December 1999 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to create the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, now celebrated every year on November 25. This day demands that women not be treated as second or third class citizens, but as equals among the rest of the global population.

Today at the United Nations, in honor of this significant day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is launching a Network of Men Leaders committed to ending violence against women. The goal of this new initiative is to get men more involved in combating violence against women, which is an important step in changing the gender power structure around the world. Men have to be our partners in ending violence -- we can't fight this fight alone.

The resolution passed in 1999 offers a list of reasons why the international community is and should be concerned about violence against women as an obstacle to the achievement of equality, development, and peace:

• Some groups of women, such as women belonging to minority groups, indigenous  women, refugee women, migrant women, women living in rural or remote communities, destitute women, women in institutions or in detention, the girl child, women with disabilities, elderly women and women in situations of armed conflict, are especially vulnerable to violence.
• To recognize that violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and  to the prevention of their full advancement, and that violence against women is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions, compared with men.
• To recognizing also that the human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights, and recognizing further the need to promote and protect all human rights of women and girls.
• To raise alarm that women do not fully enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms, and concerned about the long-standing failure to protect and promote those rights and freedoms in relation to violence against women.
• To recognizing with satisfaction the cooperation provided by the relevant agencies, bodies, funds and organs of the United Nations system to different countries in the fight to eradicate violence against women, in fulfillment of their respective mandates.
• To recognize the efforts made by civil society and non-governmental organizations that have contributed to creating a worldwide social conscience of the negative impact, both on social and on economic life, of violence against women.
• To reiterate that, according to article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, the term "violence against women" means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

There are actions you can take now in order to participate in International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women tomorrow -- see UNiTE for a list of actions. You can also help spread information about how violence continues to threaten the lives, dignity, and advancement of women around the world by sharing this post with friends via Facebook, Twitter, or email, or writing your own coverage of the day's events.

Photo Credit: World Health Organization