The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations’ sexual and reproductive health agency, has commenced a 16-day activism against gender based violence, with a pledge to challenge every form of violence against women and girls in the country.
Speaking during a media workshop training in Accra, the Head of Gender Unit at the UNFPA, Dr. Doris Mawuse Aglobitse, noted that UNFPA is committed to disrupting and ending all forms of violence against women and girls, and other harmful practices by 2030.
She explained that the 16 days of activism campaign provides an important platform each year to focus the world’s attention and common goal of ending violence against women and girls.
This year’s campaign exercise is under the UNiTE theme “Activism to End Violence against Women & Girls”.
She emphasised that UNFPA will focus on making online spaces safe by highlighting digital violence and all forms of gender-based violence (GBV), facilitated by technology.
She added that her outfit will also focus on innovations in GBV prevention and response measures, as well as the power of combining art and activism (artivism) to disrupt violence in both the real and virtual worlds.
By amplifying the voices of change makers, she indicated, UNFPA would realise its goal of ensuring that women and girls can exercise their inalienable right to feel safe, thrive and flourish wherever they find themselves.
Consequences of violations
She said Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) is one of the serious human rights violations perpetrated in the home and other human settings. The act, she said, has unquantified negative effects on the economic, educational and health of women and girls which affects the development agenda of the country.
According to her, UNFPA recognises the need to use the 16 days of activism to engage the public in order to increase awareness, and also strengthen partnership in the fight against SGBV.
The Head of Gender Unit at the UNFPA also recalled that since 1991, from November 25, (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women), until 10 December (Human Rights Day), the international community had observed the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.
“The dates are significant, and bring to the reality that violence against women is a violation of human rights. UNFPA’s 16 Days of Activism campaigns have raised awareness, mobilized advocacy and inspired action to combat gender-based violence in its many forms: sexual harassment, child marriage, female genital mutilation, intimate partner violence and rape, among other atrocities,” she stated.
She further indicated that violence against women and girls continues to be a barrier to gender equality in most countries, including Ghana, despite the numerous ongoing programmes and interventions.
The adverse consequences of violence on battered women and girls in relation to their health, psychological and emotional well-being, she said, compromise and undermine their development.
No justification
She noted further that violence against women and girls is not justified, and must not be tolerated no matter where, how and who commits the offence. “The home, workplace, educational institutions as well as public places must be safe and devoid of violence,” she stressed.
According to her, UNFPA does not consider violence against women and girls a social canker only, but a developmental challenge which affects a large chunk of the Ghanaian population and their contribution to national development.
She emphasized that her outfit will not relent in its efforts to provide empowerment opportunities for women and girls as well as support all structures working in the areas of prevention, prosecution and rehabilitation of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
Dr. Mawuse Aglobitse also called on stakeholders to rally around the global theme to end all forms of discrimination against women and girls’, and pledged the United Nations support to address Sexual and Gender Based-Violence in all its forms.
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