WUNRN
UN News Centre
Cost
of Violence Against Women 'Beyond Calculation,' Warns UN Secretary-General
Women
marching against sexual violence in the DRC
8
March 2009 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today added his voice to a chorus of
United Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today added his voice to a chorus of
United Nations officials calling for an end to the routine violence suffered by
women and girls around the world, in a message marking the International Day
for Women.
In some countries, as many as one in three women will be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, Mr. Ban said in his message for the Day, whose theme this year is “Women and Men: United to End Violence Against Women.”
“We must
stop the habitual and socially ingrained violence that mars lives, destroys
health, perpetuates poverty and prevents us from achieving women's equality and
empowerment,” he stressed.
Last year
the Secretary-General launched a global campaign “Unite to End Violence Against
Women” ending in 2015, the target date for the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), a set of internationally agreed objectives which include eradicating
poverty, achieving universal gender equality in education and reversing the
rate of HIV/AIDS incidence.
“Violence
against women is also linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS,” said Mr. Ban.
He explained
that not only are large numbers of women in some countries forced to have sex,
but “Women and girls are also systematically and deliberately subject to rape
and sexual violence in war.”
“Violence,
and particularly sexual and gender-based violence, is one of the defining
characteristics of contemporary conflict,” said Ron Redmond, the spokesperson
of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Mr. Ban
noted that “Death, injury, medical costs and lost employment are but the tip of
an iceberg. The impact on women and girls, their families, their communities
and their societies in terms of shattered lives and livelihoods is beyond
calculation.”
To change
the mindsets and socially ingrained habits of generations will not be easy and
will take the collective force of individuals, organizations and governments,
added the Secretary-General.
“We must
work together to state loud and clear, at the highest level, that violence
against women will not be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any
circumstance,” he said, adding that “We need a positive image of women in the
media. We need laws that say violence is a crime, that hold perpetrators
accountable and are enforced.”
In another
statement, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Ann Veneman
underlined the significant role men and boys have to play in ending violence
against women and called for putting in place programmes and activities to
educate them.
Michael
Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, called for gender equality to be at the
core of all the world body's actions, saying that it is not only necessary for
social justice but also for achieving universal access to HIV prevention,
treatment, care and support.
The Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, noted
during commemorations marking the Day that, “Iraqi women made much progress
towards asserting their political representational rights during the provincial
elections held last January, but remain vulnerable to discrimination and
violence on the basis of gender.”
Mr. de
Mistura pointed to the large number of widowed Iraqi women as an issue
requiring urgent and immediate attention and expressed his concern that the
many years of wars and conflict have stalled and set back progress towards
achieving equality for Iraqi women.
To mark the
occasion in Afghanistan, up to 15,000 women gathered in Kandahar, Bamyan,
Kabul, Herat, Mazar, Daikundi and Jalalabad wearing blue scarves to pray for
peace.
Speaking at
the country''s main event at the Amani High School in Kabul the Special
Representative for of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Kai Eide said,
“Afghanistan needs its women in order to make the progress we all seek.”
In Somalia,
many women and girls are victims of violence, human trafficking, beatings,
rape, child marriage, and female genital mutilation and remain silent for fear
of being ostracized or killed by their own families, said Mark Bowden, UN
Resident and Humanitarian.
“Violence
against women and girls is not a women's issue, it is an issue that concerns
and diminishes us all. No custom, tradition or religion can justify cruel and
degrading treatment,” said Mr. Bowden.
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.