Working for Women Worldwide - Embassy of the United States

Combating Violence
Against Women
A victim of child trafficking in the
Philippines.
Eliminating violence against women has
long been a goal of the United States and
other members of the United Nations.
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Rape, domestic abuse, and honor killings are
some of the horrible forms of violence against women
that are receiving much-needed attention and legislative
responses at the local, national, and international
levels, especially following the Beijing conference on
women in 1995. The United States already has instituted
bilateral and broad-based programs to address
such problems. But clearly there is much more to do.
On International Day for the Elimination of
Violence Against Women 2004, Andrew Natsios,
administrator of the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID), stated that, “Not only does
such violence impede women’s ability to live full and
productive lives, but it restricts their contributions to
family, society, and economic development.” In Darfur,
Sudan, Natsios noted that women still suffer from an
“appalling number of rapes and other sexual violence,
branding, maiming, and displacement … leading to the
disintegration of families, ostracism of the victims, and
ultimately mental, medical, and economic consequences
of untold proportions.” He cited the $113 million
that USAID had sent to the Darfur region to
help with shelter, food, medical care, and other relief,
which includes specific funding for Physicians for
Human Rights to address sexual violence.
Gender-based violence is of particular concern
when dealing with refugees and displaced persons,
since the majority are women and children. They are
exposed to violence at every stage of their flight, and
they are at risk even after they become refugees. They
face horrific dangers: sexual violence in the form of
rape and exploitation, as well as after-effects—
HIV/AIDS, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other
afflictions—that may not appear for months or even
years.
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