INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN /

“Violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world.

Every 11 minutes, a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member — and we know that other stresses from the COVID-19 pandemic to economic turmoil, inevitably lead to even more physical and verbal abuse.

Women and girls also face rampant online violence from misogynistic hate speech to sexual harassment, image abuse and grooming by predators,” UN Chief Antonio Guterres cautioned the world in his message ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to be held on 25 November 2022.

“It limits women’s and girls’ participation in all walks of life, denies their basic rights and freedoms and blocks the equal economic recovery and sustainable growth our world needs”, he reminds all.

The Declaration on the Elimination of violence against women specifically mentioned violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty whether occurring in public or in private life.

 “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, birth or other status”, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948.  

Violence, abuse and discrimination continues on half of the humanity still now.

“I call on governments to increase funding by 50 per cent to women’s rights organizations and movements by 2026. 

Take a stand and raise our voices in support of women’s rights…[and] proudly declare: We are all feminists”. 

“Supporting and investing in strong, autonomous women’s rights organizations and feminist movements is key to ending violence against women and girls”, says the UN Chief, reports UN News on 23 November 2022.