Say No to Violence against Women

Progress for Women Is Progress for All

Say No to Violence against Women

25 November 2007

UNIFEM and Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman have launched an Internet-based global campaign to promote the 2007 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the start of the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence. The goal of the Say No campaign is to get hundreds of thousands, even millions, of people to add their names to a 'virtual' book and demonstrate the growing demand for concerted action to end violence against women.

In a message to mark the start of the campaign Joanne Sandler, the Acting Executive Director of UNIFEM, said –

Women have fought for decades to break the silence and end impunity for violence against women. Today, ending violence against women is on the human rights agenda, the development agenda and the security agenda. International and regional agreements uphold the right of all women to live free of violence; the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights has a special rapporteur to report on violence against women and recommend actions to end impunity; in 2000, the Millennium Declaration recognised the links between violence, poverty and exclusion and the need to "combat all forms of violence against women"; and Security Council resolution 1325 called on "all parties to armed conflict to take special measures to protect women and girls from gender-based violence, particularly rape and other forms of sexual abuse."

Nationally too women's rights advocates are beginning to see results. Whereas four years ago only 45 countries had legislation on domestic violence, today at least 89 countries have some legislative provisions on this issue. In addition, 104 countries have made marital rape a crime, 90 have provisions against sexual harassment, and 93 prohibit trafficking in human beings. In Sierra Leone, where an estimated 257,000 women were raped during a brutal civil conflict, the Special Court this year sentenced three senior members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council to 45 and 50 years imprisonment for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape. The presiding judge noted that the defendants had been found guilty of "some of the most heinous, brutal and atrocious crimes ever recorded in human history."

Laws, policies, statutes, special rapporteurs and coordination mechanisms hold the potential to transform the way we act on and think about violence against women. But seizing this potential is the challenge. Issues such as assigning sufficient resources, training police, judicial and health officials, monitoring legislation and providing serious responses when women report violence must be much higher on the agenda. A multi-country study by WHO found wide variation in the extent of reported violence against women, depending in part on how they expect their societies will respond.

That is why it is critical to make all of our voices heard. UNIFEM, together with a growing number of partners, has launched an Internet-based global campaign urging people to "raise their voices by lending their names" to Say NO to Violence against Women!

The Internet site also highlights the work of the UNIFEM Trust Fund to Eliminate Violence against Women. Over the past ten years, the Trust Fund has supported a total of 263 initiatives in 119 countries – to formulate laws and national plans to end violence against women, to put in place measures to ensure their implementation and to develop the capacity of governments and civil society to monitor progress. The Trust Fund grantees have shown us that concerted action has the power to uproot entrenched patterns of violence and gender discrimination.

UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman invites you to join the campaign –

"I am committed to amplify the voices of the women and girls who have been subjected to violence and abuse. That's why I was the first to sign up my name for this important campaign. Please add your name to mine and say 'NO' to violence against women. Let survivors of violence know that they are not alone, that they can count on us."

How you can help

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