The Beijing Platform for Action Turns 20: Ending Violence against Women

"Advocacy campaigns around the world have heightened awareness and galvanized actions to stop violence. These involve committed women and girls, men and boys. Yet gaps in laws, implementation of legal protection and essential services remain. Women are still reluctant to report violence. Attitudes in some places tolerate, if not encourage, it."

On the occasion of the International Day to End Violence against Women, November 25 2014, this web page from UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, provides information, including multi-media offerings, around the efforts being undertaken around the world since the 189 UN Member States adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in September 1995. There, the UN took up the global call to end all forms of violence against women and girls by highlighting violence as one of their 12 critical areas of concern (click here to learn more).

On this web page, context is provided, and statistics about the various forms that violence takes are shared. For instance, around the world, 1 in 3 women have experienced physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner. There is also a quiz, "fast facts", and an infographic with video. Links to words by UN personnel are offered, such as those from UN Women's Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who highlights the role of communication in, for example, addressing what gender inequality. She calls for "greater mobilization to address the pandemic on many levels, from increasing access to services for survivors of violence to engaging all segments of society to shift cultural mindsets." Also included on the page are links to more detailed descriptions and summaries of campaigns such as Too Young to Wed (see also Related Summaries, below) and links to videos about endeavours such as the one below describing new efforts in Thailand to train police cadets in investigating domestic violence. Finally, there is a list of resources with links, such as to a Virtual Knowledge Centre to End Violence against Women and Girls.