Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 26 2008 (IPS) – The United Nations has launched a multi-year global campaign to intensify its efforts to help eliminate violence against women, which has long remained hidden in a culture of silence .
With this campaign, we are breaking the silence, and ensuring that women s voices are heard, says Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).

We need strong and sustained leadership such as yours, she told Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who shared the podium, to change norms and attitudes. It is time to end complicity and impunity.

The campaign, launched to coincide with the two-week session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) ending Mar. 7, will continue through 2015, the target date to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include a 50-percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger.

The proposed U.N. action against sexual violence will bring together 12 entities across the U.N. family, including the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), UNFPA, the U.N. children s agency UNICEF, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the U.N. Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Violence against women is an issue that cannot wait, the secretary-general said, just before Monday s opening session of the CSW.
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At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, he added.

Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless others are denied the right even to exist.

No country, no culture, no woman, young or old, is immune to this scourge. Far too often, the crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators walk free, the secretary-general complained.

The new campaign, titled Unite to End Violence Against Women , aims to mobilise public opinion to ensure that policy makers at the highest political levels work to prevent and eradicate gender violence.

A key target, says the United Nations, will be to secure political will and increased resources from governments, international institutions, U.N. entities, the private sector and other donors, for policies and programmes to tackle the problem .

The secretary-general has made a personal appeal to world leaders to lead national campaigns to fight violence against women.

The battle against gender violence has had both successes and failures.

At least 89 U.N. member states worldwide have some form of legislative prohibition on domestic violence, while marital rape may be prosecuted in some 104 states. And 90 states have legislative provisions against sexual harassment, according to U.N. figures.

On the negative side, there are some 102 states that have no specific legal provisions against domestic violence, while marital rape is not a prosecutable offence in at least 53 countries.

And only 93 states (of the 191 reviewed) have some legislative provision prohibiting trafficking in human beings.

The United Nations also says the costs of violence against women are extremely high , including direct costs of services to treat and support abused women and their children and to bring perpetrators to justice.

The indirect costs include lost employment and productivity, and the costs in human pain and suffering.

In the United States alone, the cost of intimate partner violence exceeds 5.9 billion dollars annually: 4.1 billion dollars for direct medical and health care services and 1.8 billion dollars in productivity losses.

Still, says the United Nations, There has been significant progress in establishing international standards and norms.

However, there are many states failing to meet the requirements of the international legal and policy framework.

The world body also says that the campaign to end gender violence must be prioritised at all levels, and there is a need for investment of resources and for consistent assistance, especially to least developed countries and countries emerging from conflicts.

Obaid of UNFPA points out that violence against women is linked to gender inequalities. By intention or effect, it serves to perpetuate male power and control, she said.

By respecting women s rights and empowering women, we can enrich families, communities and nations. And as we fight to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, we must preserve and nurture the human potential of every individual.

It is clear that we cannot make poverty history unless we make violence against women history, she warns.

The Millennium Development Goals, which are the centrepiece of the U.N. s development agenda for the 21st century, will not be met, declares Obaid, unless greater attention and resources are devoted to women s empowerment, gender equality, and ending violence against women and girls.