Every 11 minutes, a woman killed by an intimate partner or family: UN chief

Ahead of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, the UN chief emphasised the need to address the increasing violence against women across the world

United Nations chief António Guterres urged world leaders to increase funding by 50 per cent to women rights organisations and movements by 2026.
 

In his message ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women which is observes on November 25, he said that every eleven minutes, a girl or a woman is killed by an intimate partner or family member. 

He also highlighted the rising menace of online abuse and cyber crimes targeting women and called upon the international leaders to take active steps to stop violence against women.

“Women and girls also face rampant online violence, from misogynistic hate speech, to sexual harassment, image abuse and grooming by predators,” Guterres said.
 

Describing violence against women and girls as the most pervasive human rights violation in the world, the UN chief explained that this discrimination, violence and abuse targeting half of humanity comes at a steep cost.

Calling for a collective action towards ending violence against women he said, "Now is the time for transformative action that ends violence against women and girls." 

To achieve this, the UN chief highlighted the need to include grassroots and civil society groups at every stage of decision-making; implementing laws to make sure survivors can access their rights to justice and support; and supporting public campaigns that challenge patriarchal norms.

Guterres further said, "Let’s proudly declare: We are all feminists."

“It limits women’s and girls’ participation in all walks of life, denies their basic rights and freedoms, and blocks the equal economic recovery and sustainable growth our world needs,” he added.

This year's theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is “UNITE: Activism to End Violence Against Women and Girls”. 

A report titled "Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The gender snapshot 2022" published by the United Nations Women and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs in September this year had identified gender-based violence against women as one of the factors that could delay achieving global gender equality by 286 years. The repost highlighted that one in every 10 women and girls aged 15-49 across the world was subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by an intimate partner in 2021.