UN Secretary General Designates November 25 as lnt
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Stop Violence Against Women!
25 November, 2007
With the aim of contributing to the eradication of violence against women, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 25th as the annual lnternational Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. This day also marks the beginning of the "16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence" campaign coordinated by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, which runs until lnternational Human Rights Day on December 1st.
This year, announcing the launch of a new United Nations Multi-year Campaign to eliminate violence against women, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated: "This campaign will be an instrument, with which the governments, the United Nations bodies and the, activists of the civil society will fight the baneful violence against women in the whole world.".
''Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world. lt is a threat to all women, and an obstacle to all our efforts for development, peace and gender equality in all societies," continued the Secretary-General in his official statement.
The United Nations established this day in commemoration of the murder of Patria Mercedes Mirabal, Maria Argentina Minerva Mirabal and Antonia María Teresa Mirabal, the three sisters who were murdered on November 25th 1960 in the Dominican Republic by then-Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.
UN-INSTRAW, which is headquartered in Santo Domingo, participated in various activities to commemorate November 25th and remember the lives and work of the Mirabal sisters. In collaboration with other UN entities such as UNIFEM, the United Nations International Research and Training lnstitute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) works to eliminate violence against women, which affects one in three women worldwide.
In this context, UN-INSTRAW's Gender, Peace and Security Programme promotes gender equality and women's full and equal participation in the realms of peacekeeping, peace processes, post-conflict reconstruction and the reform of security institutions in order to improve the response to violence against women.
Within the context of these activities, Carmen Moreno, the Director of UN-INSTRAW, declared that putting an end to the violence against women is the obligation of every society: "Eliminating violence against women is your business. My business. Everyone's business. Unless both women and men massively condemn and reject every act of violence against women, our mothers, sisters, and daughters will remain unsafe at the office, in the streets and especially at home."
''Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world. lt is a threat to all women, and an obstacle to all our efforts for development, peace and gender equality in all societies," continued the Secretary-General in his official statement.
The United Nations established this day in commemoration of the murder of Patria Mercedes Mirabal, Maria Argentina Minerva Mirabal and Antonia María Teresa Mirabal, the three sisters who were murdered on November 25th 1960 in the Dominican Republic by then-Dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo.
UN-INSTRAW, which is headquartered in Santo Domingo, participated in various activities to commemorate November 25th and remember the lives and work of the Mirabal sisters. In collaboration with other UN entities such as UNIFEM, the United Nations International Research and Training lnstitute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW) works to eliminate violence against women, which affects one in three women worldwide.
In this context, UN-INSTRAW's Gender, Peace and Security Programme promotes gender equality and women's full and equal participation in the realms of peacekeeping, peace processes, post-conflict reconstruction and the reform of security institutions in order to improve the response to violence against women.
Within the context of these activities, Carmen Moreno, the Director of UN-INSTRAW, declared that putting an end to the violence against women is the obligation of every society: "Eliminating violence against women is your business. My business. Everyone's business. Unless both women and men massively condemn and reject every act of violence against women, our mothers, sisters, and daughters will remain unsafe at the office, in the streets and especially at home."
Published in: Stop Violence Against Women!, Press Release, United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, 25 November 2007.
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