Press Releases
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Launches Campaign to End Violence against Women
New York, 25 February -- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is launching today a multi-year campaign to intensify action to end violence against women and girls.
At least one out of every three women in the world is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to UN estimates, and one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape. Trafficking, sexual harassment, female genital mutilation, dowry murder, honour killings and female infanticide are other widespread aspects of the problem.
“Violence against women and girls makes its hideous imprint on every continent, country and culture,” said the Secretary-General. “It is time to focus on the concrete actions that all of us can and must take to prevent and eliminate this scourge -- Member States, the United Nations family, civil society and individuals -- women and men. It is time to break through the walls of silence, and make legal norms a reality in women’s lives.”
The campaign will aim to mobilize public opinion to ensure that policy makers at the highest level work to prevent and eradicate violence against women. A key target will be to secure political will and increased resources from governments, international institutions, United Nations entities, the private sector and other donors for policies and programmes to tackle the problem. The Secretary-General is calling on world leaders, men and women, to lead national campaigns to end violence against women. The growing commitment of men to prevent and combat violence against women will be leveraged, and the campaign will welcome and encourage the active involvement of men and boys, recognizing the critical role they must play.
Running from 2008 to 2015 -- to coincide with the target date of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – the campaign will focus on three key areas: global advocacy; United Nations leadership by example; and strengthened efforts and partnerships at the national, regional and international levels. The link to the MDGs reflects the fact that violence against women constrains the active involvement of women in development and is seen as a serious obstacle to the achievement of all internationally agreed development goals, including the MDGs.
Building on Momentum
The campaign will harness the existing strong momentum in the General Assembly and the Security Council to take action against all forms of violence against women, including rape in conflict and post-conflict situations. In recent years, Governments have made significant advances at international, regional and national levels by establishing legal and policy frameworks, covering many different forms of violence and seeking to end impunity. At the 2005 World Summit, world leaders pledged to redouble efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women and, following the release of an in-depth study by the Secretary-General, further impetus was generated by two General Assembly resolutions (61/143 and 62/133) on intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, adopted in December 2006 and 2007 respectively, and a resolution on rape and sexual violence (62/134) adopted in December 2007. However, much more needs to be done.
The campaign will build upon the decades of work by women activists, women’s groups and other civil society organizations who, as agents of change, continue to lead the struggle to expose and counter violence. Their determination and hard work has placed the issue on the global agenda and deepened understanding of the nature and scope of violence against women and girls and its impact on the survivors, their families, communities and countries.
Strengthening the role of the United Nations in ending violence and creating an organizational culture within the UN system that rejects violence against women and girls and takes action to prevent and address it are also important aims of the campaign. The ongoing reform of the UN, aimed at enhanced coherence, has created an enabling environment for the UN System to work together on this issue. UN Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict -- a collaborative initiative of 12 UN entities – and other efforts, such as UNIFEM’s “Say NO to violence against women” on-line signature campaign, demonstrate this new approach.
Launch Events
The launch of the Secretary-General’s campaign will take place during the opening meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women, to a high-level audience of Government Ministers and Ambassadors, as well as numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and representatives of the UN System. Along with the Secretary-General, speakers will include Ambassador Léo Mérorès (Haiti), President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); Thoraya Obaid, Executive Director of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA); and Taina Bien Aimé, a representative from Equality Now, a women’s NGO.
A press conference with Rachel Mayanja, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, is scheduled for noon, and an interactive dialogue on the role and responsibility of men in preventing violence against women is planned for 1:15 p.m. Speakers include Todd Minerson, Executive Director of the White Ribbon Campaign, an organization working with men to end violence against women; Captain Aimable Mushabe, a Rwandan military officer implementing measures to protect women against violence; Prateek Suman Awasthi, a young activist working with Indian youth and women on this issue; and Kevin Powell, author of seven books, including The Confessions of a Recovering Misogynist. The discussion will be moderated by Michealene Risley, women’s advocate, author and award-winning documentarian.
For further information or for interviews, please contact:
UN Department of Public Information
Oisika Chakrabarti: Tel: +1-917.367.9498;
Martina Donlon: Tel: +1-212.963.6816
E-mail: mediainfo@un.org
Launch events will be webcast at www.un.org/webcast
UN agencies unite against female genital mutilation
New York, 27 February 2008 – Expressing their commitment to the elimination of female genital mutilation, also called female genital cutting and female genital mutilation/cutting, 10 United Nations agencies pledged in a statement today to support governments, communities, and women and girls to abandon the practice within a generation, with a major reduction in many countries by 2015, the year the Millennium Development Goals are set to be achieved.
Female genital mutilation violates the rights of women and girls to health, protection and even life as the procedure sometimes results in death.
As the statement indicates, although decades of work by local communities, government, and national and international organizations have contributed to reducing the prevalence of female genital mutilation in many areas, the practice remains wide spread.
"If we can come together for a sustained push, female genital mutilation can vanish within a generation,” said UN Deputy Secretary General Ms. Asha-Rose Migiro during the launch. “But this goal demands both increased resources and strengthened coordination and cooperation among all of us."
Between 100 and 140 million women and girls in the world are estimated to have undergone FGM and 3 million girls are estimated to be at risk of undergoing the procedures every year.
According to the ten UN agencies behind the statement, “The ambitious goal of eliminating female genital mutilation within a generation can be achieved by building on the progress of existing programmes and working hand in hand with communities. We have seen great success in people turning away from this harmful practice. To take these efforts to scale, we also need to see strong leadership on female genital mutilation at all levels.”
The statement highlights the damaging effect of female genital mutilation on the health of women, girls and newborn babies. While excessive bleeding and shock are some of the immediate consequences, long-term health effects can include chronic pain, infections, and trauma.
Recent studies show that women who have undergone female genital mutilation have higher risks for caesarean sections, longer hospital stays, and postpartum haemorrhaging during childbirth. Their newborn babies have higher death rates during and immediately after birth as well.
The UN agencies said, “We are becoming increasingly concerned about the medicalisation of female genital mutilation. This is where the mutilation is performed by health professionals in health facilities. The argument that a mild form performed by medically trained personnel is safer is commonly heard in countries where female genital mutilation is practiced. But this should never be considered as an option."
The statement also points out that female genital mutilation is a manifestation of unequal relations between women and men with roots in deeply entrenched social, economic and political conventions.
The practice is believed to enhance a girl’s chastity and chances of marriage by controlling her sexuality. As such, it not only infringes on women’s sexual and reproductive health; it also perpetuates gender roles detrimental to women.
“We recognize that traditions are often stronger than law, and legal action by itself is not enough,” said all the agencies involved. “Change must also come from within. This is why it is critical for us to join hands and work closely with communities and their leaders so that they can bring about sustainable social change.”
The statement stresses that because female genital mutilation is a social convention, it can best be changed through working with the communities where it is practiced.
Within these communities, the decision to abandon the practice must be collective, explicit and widespread to bring about a positive change – and end female genital mutilation within a generation. There are a growing number of examples in countries around the world where this is happening, but this joint initiative is to support the scaling up of good examples to become common practice.
Notes to the editor:
The 10 agencies are: The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR), The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UNICEF, the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
For further information, please contact:
Christopher Powell, WHO Geneva, +41-22-791-2888, powellc@who.int
Omar Gharzeddine, UNFPA New York, +1-212-297-5028, gharzeddine@unfpa.org
Geoffrey Keele, UNICEF New York, +1-212-326-7583, gkeele@unicef.org