International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Which women are specially vulnerable to violence? Those belonging to minority groups? Refugee women? Migrant women? Women living in rural or remote areas? Elderly women? 

We are all accountable for playing our part in reducing violence at the individual and community levels. Public awareness needs to be raised if we want to stop it. Creating a worldwide social conscience of the negative impact of violence against women on both social and economic life is urgent. No more lives, please!

Violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of their full advancement. This is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions, compared to men.

In the first article of the Declaration of the Elimination of Violence against Women, violence is defined as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.

The date chosen to commemorate the lives of the Mirabel sisters, three Dominican women assassinated in 1960 during the Trujillo dictatorship, is November 25th. These women were polictical activists who have become symbols of feminine resistance. They were brave, but they were cheated. They were not the first and unfortunatelly will not be the last. That is why impunity must end, adequate resources must be allocated, new laws need to be implemented and national plans of actions to address VAW are welcome.

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