Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women

Combat violence against women
119
The task force
calls for a new
global campaign
to end violence
against women,
spearheaded
by the UN
Secretary-
General and
endorsed by
the General
Assembly
crime and inadequate infrastructure provision. Narrow paths, open fields, distant
communal latrines, unsafe transport hubs, poor lighting, empty shacks,
and proximity to shebeens (bars or pubs) were found to exacerbate already high
levels of rape.
Regional and global initiatives
Although the international community has rallied to address other epidemics
(such as HIV and tuberculosis), it has not responded in the same way to
the epidemic of violence against women. For instance, while UN General
Assembly resolution 50/166 established a Trust Fund to End Violence against
Women at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM),
country needs and requests far outstrip the fund’s current resources: the trust
fund receives about $15 million in requests annually but has only $1 million to
disburse. With its visibility and track record, the trust fund could serve as an
important mechanism for a strong global response.
Other global initiatives have sought to change the norms that support
violence against women. Two visible examples are The 16 Days of Activism
to End Violence against Women, celebrated each year from November 25
through December 10 (International Human Rights Day), which engages tens
of thousands of (mostly) women’s NGOs in nearly every country, and the V-
Day Campaign, which uses Valentine’s Day (February 14) to raise awareness
of intimate partner violence against women. 11
At the regional level the Inter-American Development Bank’s efforts to
mainstream the objective of reducing violence against women in its lending
operations for citizen security is a promising approach that should be replicated
by other regional and international financial institutions (box 9.1). Because
violence against women has high economic and social development costs,
incorporating a focus on violence against women is well within the mandate
of these institutions.
The task force seeks to complement the global, national, and regional efforts
by calling for a new global campaign to end violence against women, spearheaded
by the UN Secretary-General and endorsed by the General Assembly.
The task force recommends that the campaign draw links between violence
against women and women’s vulnerability in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, highlighting
yet another reason to bring about the changes in attitudes and practices
required to end violence against women and building on the leadership
that the United Nations and the Secretary-General have already provided in
the fight against the global HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The global campaign to end violence against women would mobilize leadership
at all levels—local, national, and international—to generate action to
make violence against women unacceptable. Important components would be
mass media campaigns, support for collecting and analyzing country-level data
on violence against women, and an infusion of resources to the UNIFEM