International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2024

Rome (Italy). On 25 November 2024, the 25^th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is celebrated, established by the UN General Assembly through its resolution 54/134 of 17 December 1999, inviting governments, international organizations, and NGOs to organize activities to raise public awareness of the issue.

This date was chosen to commemorate the brutal murder of the Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic, which occurred in 1960, because they were considered revolutionary.

Violence against women and girls in these years does not seem to lose intensity, remaining one of the most widespread human rights violations with staggering data: the United Nations exposes the report that in 2023, every 10 minutes a woman was killed by a family member or partner.

Violence against women takes many forms: physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual violence and exploitation, forced marriages, female genital mutilation, stalking or cyber harassment.

According to Article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, issued by the UN General Assembly in 1993, violence against women is defined as “any act of gender-based violence which results, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering for women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private life.”

All this causes permanent physical and psychological damage to women, affecting their health, often causing phenomena of depression, anxiety or the transmission of diseases such as HIV.

The UN estimates that in the world, around 736 million women – about 1 in 3 – have been victims of sexual or psychological violence, or both, at least once in their lives. Most of these abuses are perpetrated by a partner or family member.

Violence against women can only be combated through joint efforts of women and men, international cooperation, and a profound change in mentality and policies. With this goal, the UN has launched the #NoExcuse. UNiTE to End Violence against Women awareness campaign. There is no acceptable excuse for this gross violation of human rights.

VIDES International and the FVGS ETS Foundation have been working together since their inception to promote women’s empowerment.

Specifically VIDES Internacional from 2023, is implementing the project “Sustainable livelihood for tribal women through professional formation, market access, and ecological conservation” in northern India to strengthen women’s autonomy and independence. This initiative, through the creation of sustainable livelihoods, aims to educate women in entrepreneurship and implement environmental protection programs. The project aims to provide a concrete response to one of the most pressing problems facing women in India who suffer from widespread discrimination in many aspects of life, such as access to education, food, health, work, safety. In fact, as reported by the Indian National Commission for Women, in recent years there has been a more than 2-fold increase in complaints of domestic violence.

The Foundation FVGS ETS, aware that educational imbalances can also have serious consequences for women’s future and their chances of having a decent job which allows them to be economically independent of a man, promotes Distance Support from its inception. It is aimed at giving thousands of girls around the world the chance to go to school and learn about their rights.

As Pope Francis reminds, “The rebirth of humanity began from the woman. Women are sources of life. Yet they are continually offended, beaten, raped, induced to prostitute themselves and to suppress the life that they carry in their womb. Every violence inflicted on a woman is a profanation of God, born of a woman. From the body of a woman came salvation for humanity; by how we treat the body of the woman we understand our level of humanity.”