Violence against women remains widespread and largely unpunished by UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) 1:16am 25th Nov, 2008   25 November 2008    Violence against women is the least punished crime in the world, United Nations officials said today, urging governments to end the widespread impunity and to take measures to ensure that the laws and policies that aim to protect women and girls are enforced.    In separate messages to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, observed today, the heads of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) called on policymakers to harness the momentum generated by recent global efforts against the scourge.    UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid described the battle to end violence against women as “a major challenge of our time,” alongside climate change and the global financial crisis.    “Violence against women is the most prevalent and least punished crime in the world. It is also a grave threat to health and well-being,” Ms. Obaid said in a statement, adding that it was disturbing that it still persisted 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.    In her message, Ms. Obaid underscored UNFPA’s commitment to support women’s empowerment, gender equality and reproductive health and rights and said that tackling violence against women and girls was critical to ensuring the success of these efforts.    UNIFEM Executive Director Inés Alberdi pointed to two significant events this year that she said have marked a defining moment in the global drive to end violence against women.    In March Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched his global campaign, UNiTE to End Violence against Women with a 2015 deadline to coincide with the target date for meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a set of internationally agreed objectives for eradicating poverty and other social ills, including gender inequality.    “It is a challenge for all of us, governments, civil society as well as the international community to take the actions needed to stop this prevalent human rights violation,” said Ms. Alberdi.    She added that the Security Council reached another milestone in adopting resolution 1820, which recognizes sexual violence in situations of armed conflict as a threat to national and international peace and security and calls for decisive actions by all involved in the conflict to protect women and girls.    The UNIFEM campaign, which aims to gather one million names on its “Say No to Violence against Women” website, also wraps up today and the signatures will be handed over to Mr. Ban to coincide with the Day.    “Now, we must use this momentum to get governments to implement the laws and policies already in place. Despite the fact that more governments than ever have passed such laws, there is still a wide implementation gap,” said Ms. Alberdi.    Mr. Ban, in his message for the Day, noted the progress that has been made but also highlighted the need to address existing gaps. “We need to do more to enforce laws and counter impunity. We need to combat attitudes and behaviour that condone, tolerate, excuse or ignore violence committed against women. And we need to increase funding for services for victims and survivors,” he stated.    “All of us – men and women, soldiers and peacekeepers, citizens and leaders – have a responsibility to help end violence against women. States must honour their commitments to prevent violence, bring perpetrators to justice and provide redress to victims. And each of us must speak out in our families, workplaces and communities, so that acts of violence against women cease,” he stressed.    Adding her voice to the call to ensure justice for women, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that despite many advances over the past century, some level of impunity for sexual and other forms of violence against women occurs all across the world, and in virtually all societies.    “In some societies, men are fully aware that if they beat or injure – or, in some cases, even kill – their wives or daughters, they will not end up in court,” the High Commissioner said in a statement. “What kind of lesson does a State pass on to the next generation, when it turns a blind eye to the abusive treatment of one parent by the other?    “Efforts to combat violence against women will never be fully successful while national legal frameworks to protect them, and grant them the possibility of economic and social independence, remain inadequate,” Ms. Pillay added.    In Iraq, women and girls are becoming “the soft targets of violence and the invisible victim of the conflict,” said Yakin Ertürk, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences.    Ms. Ertürk described a dire situation for women in the Middle Eastern country, who are the victims of rape, sex trafficking, forced and early marriages, murder and abduction for sectarian or criminal reasons and are either forced or driven into prostitution. She also expressed deep concern about the increase in violence within families, in particular the rise of so-called honour killings.    “Honour killings are among the primary causes of unnatural deaths among women in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, and a number of reports are also documenting the practice of female genital mutilation,” Ms. Ertürk said in a press release.    Faced with the despair of not even being able to report sexual attacks for fear of being ostracized or killed by their own families, many women are turning to suicide to escape the cycle of violence.    Women’s organizations that take on the fight against violence are not very popular in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Marie Nyombo Zaia of the National Network of Non-Governmental Organizations for Women’s Development (RENADEF) told journalists before the ceremony.    Ms. Zaia, a personal example of how education and community support can help women escape violence and abuse, noted that the absence of political will and the lack of knowledge among Congolese women of their rights creates a desperate situation in her country.    “I am myself a victim of violence. During my second year of graduate studies, my father forced me into a polygamous marriage. I was beaten up virtually every day. After my first pregnancy, I decided to flee my marriage. Thanks to the support of a Catholic missionary who was concerned with promoting women’s studies in the province of Maniema, I could complete my second year of education in South Kivu,” Ms. Zaia said.    After graduating, Ms. Zaia became involved in defending the rights of women and girls and eventually spearheaded the creation of RENADEF, which is aimed at uniting the efforts of male and female activists to empower women and care for victims of violence.    With the help of a grant through the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, her agency provides a range of services to survivors, such as legal, psychological and socio-economic support.    Ms. Zaia told reporters the story of “Madame Nadine,” one such survivor from the capital of the war-torn province of North Kivu, Goma.    “She was gang-raped by armed individuals in front of her husband and her four children – two boys and two girls. They also gang-raped her two daughters, aged 14 and 16 years. These armed men, after taking everything that they could find in the house, shot dead the father and the two boys and took the two daughters with them to the mountains. Nadine, depressed, desperate and inconsolable was welcomed, in January 2008, in our RENADEF shelter, where she is now receiving support and care and undergoing psychological rehabilitation.”    UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres added his voice to the call for action, saying that the agency needs to pay urgent and close attention to the prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence.    “Sexual and gender-based violence is a major scourge, continuing to affect many persons of concern to UNHCR, especially women and girls,” Mr. Guterres noted in a message to staff marking the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women.    His message highlighted a trip to North Kivu last year, on which he had been struck by the appalling stories told by displaced women and how their personal tragedies had been compounded by having to live in constant fear of repeated attacks and reprisals. Visit the related web page
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item