“We are working with partners to end impunity, to promote and protect the
rights of women, including the right to sexual and reproductive health, and to
foster equal opportunity, participation and decision-making,” UN Population Fund
(UNFPA) Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said in a message ahead of
tomorrow’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The Day marks the first of the 16 Days of Activism to End Violence against
Women in which UNFPA is joining with rights
organizations worldwide to bring greater attention to this pervasive and deeply
entrenched human rights violation, proposing a range of steps from greater
overall publicity and an ending to silence over spousal abuse to pushing for
legislative reform and providing safe havens for girls escaping coerced
marriages.
To kick off the event UNFPA is highlighting five under-reported stories
relating to gender-based violence for 2006:
“Local and supposedly ‘traditional’ forms of violence against women, such as
female genital mutilation or forced marriages, globalize as well, moving along
with their potential victims. These human rights violations are not inevitable
consequences of women’s migration.
“They can be curbed if states are truly committed to protecting migrant women
against violence, trafficking and exploitation, without denying them the option
to migrate legally, if they choose to,” she added in the statement in which she
was joined by he Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council on Violence
against Women, its Causes and Consequences, Yakin Ertürk and the Council’s
Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, Jorge
Bustamante.
More common examples of gender
violence cited by UNFPA include:
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Louise Arbour drew attention to the plight of women migrants. “Unfortunately,
human rights violations in various forms such as trafficking in women or
different types of exploitation often run parallel to women’s migration,” she
said in a message for the International Day.