UNIS/SGSM/1457
21 November 2024
The epidemic of violence against women and girls shames humanity.
Every day, on average, 140 women and girls are killed by someone in their own family. Around one in three women still experience physical or sexual violence. No country or community is unaffected. And the situation is getting worse.
Crises of conflict, climate, and hunger have inflamed inequalities. Horrendous sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war. And women and girls face a torrent of online misogyny. The situation is compounded by a growing backlash against women and girls’ rights. Too often, legal protections are being rolled back, human rights are being trampled, and women’s human rights defenders are being threatened, harassed and killed for speaking out.
The United Nations Spotlight Initiative and the UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women initiative call on all of us to join forces to end the scourge of violence against women and girls everywhere. The world must heed this call. We need urgent action for justice and accountability, and support for advocacy.
Almost thirty years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action promised to prevent and eliminate violence against women and girls – it’s beyond time to deliver.
* *** *
With the deposit of the instrument of accession at the UN Headquarters in New York, Bahrain becomes the sixteenth State Party to the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, also known as the "Singapore Convention on Mediation".
Visa-free entry, temporary protection and targeted anti-trafficking measures across Europe for refugees from Ukraine are effectively mitigating trafficking and smuggling risks, suggests a new study from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), launched today in Kyiv.
The new Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations (Vienna), Yurii Vitrenko, presented his credentials today to the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV), Ghada Waly.
During its 142nd session, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) focused on ensuring the functioning of the international drug control system and efforts to ensure the availability of controlled medicines and to prevent illicit drug manufacture, diversion and misuse.