25 November 2013 – Mareeg.com-Today is an opportunity for each person to recommit to ending the harm being committed against one out of three women, senior United Nations officials said marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
“Violence against women and girls directly affects individuals while harming our common humanity,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day, which this year focuses on the theme of raising awareness by wearing the colour orange.
Mr. Ban applauded leaders who are helping to enact and enforce laws and change mindsets, and paid tribute to the heroes who help victims heal and become agents of change. Among those, Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), who the UN chief met last month, and who in turn, is inspired by the courage of the women he treats.
In her first message for the Day as UN Women Executive Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, urged world leaders to “mount a response that is proportionate to the violence threatening the lives of women and girls.”
We need education in schools that teaches human rights and mutual respect, and that inspires young people to be leaders for equality,” she said in a video message, adding that to be effective, prevention to must address gender inequality as the root cause of violence.
Speaking to journalists in New York, UN Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri called gender-based violence a “gross human rights violation” and a “pandemic”.
Wearing orange scarfs uniformly with the other panellists to call attention to the orange theme, she noted that violence takes many forms – physical, psychological, economic and sexual – and that it is more dangerous to be a woman in conflict and post-conflict situations than to be a soldier, given the use of rape as a war tool.
She also called attention to the most common place for violence against women and girls – the home – which is the place they are supposed to be the safest.
Journalists also heard from Sebastiano Cardi, Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, who noted that while he was the only man on the panel, the issue mainly concerns men since they are traditionally the perpetrators of the violence.
Later today at the UN Headquarters, Italian actors will perform Serena Dandini’s ‘Wounded to Death’, which consists of monologues of women killed by a husband, a partner, a lover or an “ex”. more from the source http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=46580&Cr=Violence&Cr1=Women#.UpPgbNpFDIU