SI MONTHLY NEWS November 2006 United Nations
From SI Exco News
Violence against WOMEN as a universal phenomenon
Half of humankind lives under this threat regardless of income, class, race, culture or ethnicity. Violence causes untold misery, harms families across generations and impoverishes communities. It stops women from fulfilling their potential, restricts economic growth, and undermines development.
Violence is an extremely diffuse and complex phenomenon with biological, psychological, social and environmental roots.
The World Health Organization defines violence: 'use of physical force of power, threatening another person with a high likelihood of resulting in injury, psychological harm or deprivation.' An effort could be to reach consensus and set universal standards of behaviour through the elaboration of human rights to protect human life and dignity in our fast changing World.
The human cost in grief and pain, of course, can’t be calculated. The impact of violence – lives lost and health harmed. Many of the victims are too weak, scared or young to protect themselves… More violence occurs out of sight in homes, workplaces and even in the medical and social institutions, set up to care for people. Many acts of violence are never recorded because they do not come to the attention of authorities.
Since then a wide range of public health researchers in the United States and around the world have set themselves the task of understanding violence and finding ways to prevent it. From analysis to action to raise efforts of visibility of violence against women: individual, relations, community efforts. Many different sectors and agencies should be involved in prevention activities and evaluation an integral part of all programs:
- Create, implement and monitor a national action plan for violence prevention;
- Enhance capacity for collecting data of violence;
- Increase collaboration and exchange of information on prevention, etc.
It is time to take these efforts to the next level. Violence against women has been recognized as a human rights violence. We must play a stronger, better coordinated and more visible leadership role. Member States can do more to implement legal and policy framework to which they have committed themselves. And all of us must form strong and effective partnerships with civil society, which has such a crucial role to play on this issue at every level.
Consequences of violent behaviour could not be ignored in the effort to improve the nation’s health and made tackling the roots of violence a top priority for the health community. Together, we must work to create an environment where violence against women is not tolerated. Let all of us -- men and women alike -- join forces in this mission.
Noema Chaplin
Member of the Planning Committee of 57th, 58th, 59th
DPI/NGO conference, New York
Effective Partnerships for Human Security, Sustainable Development”
Noema Chaplin
59th Annual United Nations Department Of Public Information/ Nongovernmental Organizations' Conference held at United Nations headquarters, New York, Sept 6-8 (UN/DPI/NGO) . The gathering represented six hundred NGOs included over one thousand representatives from 90+ countries. Each Conference panel and each participating NGO had one representative under the age of thirty to help ensure the widest possible exchange of views and experiences. The focus was upon the partnerships created between civil society, governments and the U.N. working to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) signed by 189 world leaders in 2000 in which they pledged, among other goals, to halve world poverty by the year 2015.
Mr. JAN ELIASSON, President, sixtieth session of the General Assembly, warned U.N. officials to ask the U.N. to build bridges with civil society. The U.N., he said, needs to hear civil society's criticisms and concerns as this helps them grow and toughen up so that together we can move more fully into the 21st century. He described his personal commitment to the NGO community. NGOs are good at dealing with real situations. They are also good at transmitting early warning signals. The NGO community reminded Governments and parliaments that there was a world outside of their own. NGOs were “advocates for a good cause”.
SHEIKHA HAYA, President-Elect, 61st session, General Assembly UN, noted civil society had made a significant contribution to United Nations evolution. The Organization would only achieve its goals with NGO participation/partnership. The world had witnessed civil society’s efforts in times of crisis, where NGOs represented a strong voice and remained key partners in delivering humanitarian service in the most remote and difficult places.
Addressing the issue of the participation of young people, SHAMINA DE GONZAGA, Special Advisor on NGO relations, said the world was witnessing a change in consciousness. It was a matter of opening the door not only to the well-informed and endowed, but to those not knowing much about the U N.
The Conference held a discussion in which participants had an opportunity to discuss the role of media and communications technology in achieving the Millennium Goals and “new media ecosystem” that. as new avenues for freedom of expression and individual rights emerged, it would be crucial for civil society. Important workshop was “How a People’s Assembly would contribute to the Goals of this conference”.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that together, civil society and the United Nations could make even greater strides towards a more democratic peaceful future for all. “We must share our knowledge and reinforce our actions. I see a United Nations that celebrates non-governmental revolution, the power of the global citizen, as the best thing that has happened to our Organization in a long time. We must work to strengthen alliances with the United Nations, the private sector, the public sector and among yourselves. That minimizes duplication and maximizes impact”.
To allow the United Nations partnership with NGOs to be more effective, more work must be done in implementation. Despite past efforts, we still live in a highly imbalanced world: 2.5 billion people live on under $2/day; one billion have no access to clean water; one-third of the global population lives without electricity; 30,000 children die each day from poverty and another 30,000 from preventable diseases, or as Jeffrey Sachs states, "because they can't afford to live," totalling 22 million needless deaths each year.
That was particularly true in terms of achieving the Millennium Development Goals. At the current time with great discontent around the world, it was important to recognize the diversity and contributions of different sectors, maintain an open dialogue with the NGO community - www.un.org/webcast/SE2006.html.
uploaded by Amelia
