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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com,
UN/ - 11 October 2006 -- We
will continue to work with partners to more
forcefully address violence against women and
girls as a serious human rights violation and to
end impunity. Widespread impunity not only
encourages further abuses and suffering, it also
sends the signal that male violence against
women is acceptable or normal. It
is time to end tolerance and complicity. We
cannot make poverty history unless we make
violence against women history. We cannot stop
the spread of HIV, unless we stop discrimination
and violence against women and girls. We cannot
build a world of peace, development and security
until we end violence against women and girls. The
Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty,
improve health and promote equality will not be
met unless greater attention and resources are
devoted to ending violence against women. Today
far too many women are subjected to violence and
made to feel shame. The real shame belongs to a
world that often blames women for the crimes
committed against them, and allows such
widespread violence to continue.
It
is the responsibility of governments and society
as a whole to condemn violence against women and
to take action to eliminate it. And it is the
responsibility of UNFPA and the UN system to
support States and peoples in this urgent
effort. We
recognize the grass-roots work of women’s
organizations and the women’s movement for
bringing the issue of violence against women and
girls from the private to the public domain.
Countless women have put and continue to
put their lives at risk by highlighting the
issue and demanding justice.
It is our job to support them. Violence
against women is not only a serious human rights
violation; it is an affront to women’s
reproductive health and rights and their freedom
at large. UNFPA
works to ensure that addressing violence against
women and girls is an integral part of the
sexual and reproductive health programmes we
support. For
millions of women around the world, their visit
to a health clinic may be the only opportunity
they have to get the services and support they
need to begin to heal and escape violence and
abuse. UNFPA
fully agrees with the recommendation in the
report that entities of the United Nations
system and all other donors should provide
increased resources for national action plans to
prevent and eliminate violence against women,
particularly in the least developed countries
and in countries emerging from conflict. We are
prepared to intensify work within UN country
teams to support national action plans on
violence against women. This
recommendation is in line with the Brussels Call
to Action, which was adopted last May at the
International Symposium on Violence against
Women in Conflict Situations and Beyond. The
meeting, sponsored by the European Commission,
the Government of Belgium and UNFPA, included
participants from a number of conflict affected
countries as well as UN partners. UNFPA
agrees with the experts of the UN Millennium
Project that launching national campaigns to
reduce violence against women is a quick win to
improve the well-being of millions of people and
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. We
are committed to working in partnership with
others. And I would like to stress that we will
never put a stop to violence against women until
men are made partners and both girls and boys
are raised in a culture of mutual respect and
responsibility, and equal opportunity. Over
the years, we have made progress, together with
partners, in bringing national laws into
compliance with international standards; in
providing a range of services to victims; in
training and sensitizing police, justice
officials, armed forces and UN peacekeepers; in
reaching out to men; in combating harmful
practices such as female genital cutting and
child marriage; and in promoting gender equality
and zero tolerance of violence against women
through curricula in the formal education
system, youth peer counselors,
advocacy campaigns, community dialogues,
and the news media. Yet
despite the work that has been done, we fully
agree with the conclusion of the
Secretary-General’s report that, “violence
against women has yet to receive the priority
attention and resources needed at all levels to
tackle it with the seriousness and visibility
necessary”. As
an international community, it is our job to
redress this global injustice. UNFPA
has worked with partners in countries in every
region of the world and has experience from
which to build a more coordinated and effective
response. I would like to share with you some
examples. In
In
In
Latin America and the UNFPA agrees with the recommendations in
the Secretary-General’s report on the need to
strengthen data collection and research to guide
legislative, policy and programme development
and monitoring and evaluation. We will continue
to work within the UN system and with
governments to develop statistical capacity and
coherence. All
over the world, progress towards ending violence
against women has begun. What is needed at this
critical juncture is bold leadership matched
with the allocation of significant resources. It
is our hope that the Secretary-General’s study
will generate much stronger action at all
levels. UNFPA is committed to a strengthened
United Nations system response to end violence
against women. I thank you. ~~~~~~ MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the U.N., provides commentary and analysis from leading world figures: King Abdullah II (Jordan), HRH Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein (Jordan), Sir Brian Urquhart, Hans Blix, Amb. Richard Holbrooke, Anwar Ibrahim, Bianca Jagger, Shashi Tharoor, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Kerry Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen. Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Barbara Crossette, Amb. Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka), Amb. Pierre Schori (Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Mehri Madarshahi, Gloria Feldt, Jeffrey Laurenti, Rodney D. Smith, Rory O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and others.
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