UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that every 11 minutes a woman or a girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member and said that “violence against women and girls is the most pervasive human rights violation in the world.”
Guterres’ comments come ahead of the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women” which is observed on November 25 every year. The UN Secretary-General also asked governments to increase funding by 50% to women’s rights organisations and movements by 2026.
Guterres highlighted that Covid-19 and global economic issues are leading to more physical and verbal abuse and also pointed out that women and girls continue to face violence online through misogynistic hate speech, sexual harassment, image abuse and grooming by predators.
He said these acts of discrimination, violence and abuse which targets half of humanity is coming at a steep cost. Guterres said these incidents limit women’s participation in society and economic and sustainable growth. He said basic rights and freedoms of women are denied through acts of violence and discrimination.
He said now is the time for transformative action which will end violence against women and girls and urged the governments to design, fund and implement national action programmes to tackle these incidents and also include civil society groups at every stage of decision-making.
This year’s theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is “UNITE: Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls”. It will act as a reminder to stand with activists all over the planet who are calling for change and supporting survivors of violence.
Guterres’ concerns were raised in one report titled “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: the Gender Snapshot 2022” which was jointly produced by UN Women and the UN Statistics Division. The report assesses progress across regions across the world on different goals and draws attention to the fact that violence within homes continues to be a pressing issue.
The report highlighted that more than 1 in every 10 women and girls aged between 15 and 49 were subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by an intimate partner in the previous year. One in four women say household conflicts are more frequent since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The report says it will take at least two decades for laws preventing violence against women to be in place everywhere.
(with inputs from the Times of India)
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