UNITED NATIONS, March 12 (UPI) -- Two weeks ago, about 4,000 women from advocacy groups around the world converged at U.N. World Headquarters in New York for the 51st Session of the U.N. Economic and Social Council's Commission on the Status of Women. The priority theme was "The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child."
Their aim was to pass resolutions by consensus Friday on female genital mutilation, forced marriage, HIV/AIDS and on violence against women in the Palestinian territories, said Carolyn Hannan, director of the commission's Division of Women.
They were following up on the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.
"Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an International Women's Day message Thursday, calling on governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector to work for a transformation in relations between women and men, at all levels of society.
"It takes a devastating toll on women's lives, on their families and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence, yet the reality is that, too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned. The United Nations must be at the forefront of those endeavors," he added, saying that in almost all countries, women continue to be underrepresented in decision-making positions, while their work continues to be undervalued, underpaid or not paid at all.
Ban also endorsed a high level panel's recommendations that all U.N. efforts on behalf of women be consolidated, instead of spread among different agencies.
Hannan said the commission frequently repeats resolutions to keep issues before the public. The commission wants the United Nations and its members to insure there are laws to protect women and where there already are laws to have them enforced to stop violence against the girl child.
She said panels during the last two weeks also addressed the roles of men and boys and efforts to educate them about violence against women, including honor killings.
In Sudan's Darfur region, where nearly four years of fighting among government, allied militias and rebels seeking greater autonomy has already killed over 200,000 people and uprooted 2.5 million more amid charges of massacres and mass rape, the U.N. refugee agency established centers for internally displaced women and refugees.
Some 80,000 women have benefited from the service provided by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, contributing to a gradual change in the perception amongst displaced men and women about sexual violence in conflict.
"This centre is vital for us," said a woman beneficiary identified only as Fatma at a camp in West Darfur. "Some people may think that we just need food and water to survive. But what we are doing here is also a very important kind of assistance."
At its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said his agency was joining nine sister U.N. agencies to take concerted action against sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations.
"I hope these actions will make it absolutely clear that prevention and response to sexual and gender-based violence is a UNHCR priority," he said of "The Stop Rape Now" campaign co-launched by the agency in Nairobi, Geneva and New York.
In a U.N. school, a 15-year-old Palestinian refugee girl, known only as Suha, expressed her hope "to be the first Palestinian woman to become president." She was being helped by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in the Palestinian territories.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen Koning AbuZayd said in a message to Palestinian women: "It is your strength, your courage and your steadfastness that have kept hope alive in" the Palestinian territories.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called violence against women a scourge "of pandemic proportion... rightly termed the most common but least punished crime in the world."
U.N. Population Fund Executive Director Thoraya Ahmed Obaid noted while progress has been made in the adoption of laws, much greater action is needed to ensure laws are enforced. "Everyone should understand that violence against women and girls is unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated," she said.
U.N. Development Fund for Women Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer said all the progress made in advancing women's rights could be destroyed by continuing violence against women, while U.N. World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan noted that intimate partner violence was the most common form of abuse, much more so than assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances.
The U.N. International Labor Organization highlighted the persistent gap in status, job security, wages and education between women and men that contributes to the "feminization of working poverty."
