UN Secretary General’s message on International Women’s Day

armradio.am
07.03.2009 14:33

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon issued a message on the occasion of
the International Women’s Day. The message reads:

`One year ago, I launched a campaign calling on people and governments
the world over to unite to end violence against women and girls. The
campaign will run through 2015, the target date for achieving the
Millennium Development Goals. The link with the Goals is clear. We must
stop the habitual and socially ingrained violence that mars lives,
destroys health, perpetuates poverty and prevents us from achieving
women’s equality and empowerment.

Violence against women is also linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS. In
some countries, as many as one in three women will be beaten, coerced
into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Women and girls are also
systematically and deliberately subject to rape and sexual violence in
war.

Violence against women stands in direct contradiction to the promise of
the United Nations Charter to `promote social progress and better
standards of life in larger freedom.’ The consequences go beyond the
visible and immediate. Death, injury, medical costs and lost employment
are but the tip of an iceberg. The impact on women and girls, their
families, their communities and their societies in terms of shattered
lives and livelihoods is beyond calculation. Far too often, crimes go
unpunished, and perpetrators walk free. No country, no culture, no
woman, young or old, is immune.

Increasingly, men, too, are speaking out against this stain on our
society. Global examples include the White Ribbon Campaign and the
V-Day Campaign’s `V-Men’ counterpart. And at community workshops, men
are teaching other men that there is another way and that `real men
don’t hit women’.

Changing mindsets and the habits of generations is not easy. It must
involve all of us ` individuals, organizations and governments. We must
work together to state loud and clear, at the highest level, that
violence against women will not be tolerated, in any form, in any
context, in any circumstance.

We need economic and social policies that support women’s empowerment.
We need programmes and budgets that promote non-violence. We need a
positive image of women in the media. We need laws that say violence is
a crime, that hold perpetrators accountable and are enforced.

The `Unite to End Violence against Women’ campaign encourages men and
women to join hands to oppose violence against women. Only by acting
together can we create more equal and peaceful societies. Let us all,
on this International Women’s Day, resolve to make a difference.’