Eliminating Violence Against Women

Violence against women and girls continues to be a global epidemic that wounds, tortures, and slays – physically, psychologically, sexually and economically. It is one of the most pervasive of human rights violations, denying women and girls' equality, security, dignity, self-esteem, and their right to enjoy fundamental freedoms. Violence against women is present in every country, cutting across boundaries of culture, class, education, income, ethnicity and age. Women are subjected to violence in a wide range of situations, including family, community, state custody, and armed conflict and its aftermath. Violence constitutes a continuum across the lifespan of women, from before birth to old age. It cuts across both the public and the private spheres.

The global dimensions of this violence are alarming. According to UN estimates, at least one out of every three women in the world is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, and one in five women will become a victim of rape or attempted rape 1 No society can claim to be free of such violence. What differ are the patterns and trends existing in countries and regions. Specific groups of women are more vulnerable, including minority groups, migrant women, refugee women and those in situations of armed conflict, women in institutions and detention, female children, and victims of trafficking.

This year, the United Nations Secretary-General is lending his leadership, through a multi-year system-wide campaign 2 , to increase the visibility and unacceptability of violence against women as a violation of human rights and a major impediment to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

In its resolution 2006/29 of 27 July 2006, the Economic and Social Council expressed concern at the high levels of violence against women and girls in many societies and drew attention to the need for ensuring effective and coordinated responses by the criminal justice system. The ECOSOC invited the Institutes comprising the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme Network (PNI) “to consider providing assistance, upon request, to Member States in the area of crime prevention and criminal justice responses to violence against women and girls, in cooperation with other relevant entities of the United Nations system, and to integrate the elimination of violence against women and girls into their training and technical assistance efforts, including their crime prevention activities”.

In this framework and on the occasion of the Seventeenth Session of the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the PNI has organized the workshop entitled “Eliminating Violence Against Women in the Field of Criminal Justice: Forms, Strategies and Tools”. The present publication includes the background papers of the workshop, collected and published by UNICRI in its role of PNI Coordinating Institute.

I trust this publication can provide a hint for mindful thought on possible strategies and tools to be adopted at the national, regional and international levels in the effort of eliminating the scourge of violence against women and girls in whatever form should it take place. UNICRI and the other Institutes comprising the PNI are ready to join forces to assist U.N. Members States in their fight against this hideous and unacceptable crime.