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	A future free from the tyranny of violence against women and girls by Lakshmi Puri UN Women   Nov 2016   Each year on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is commemorated. A commemoration in essence is an opportunity to reflect on the challenges, prove that progress can be made and celebrate victories. It is also a reminder of the obligations and the responsibility we all must own at both the private and the public level to ensure that every woman, every girl, in all corners of the world lives in a world free of violence and fear. They must be enabled to enjoy their most fundamental right to physical integrity and security.   The reality today is grim. In every country, in every city or village, in conflict zones and refugee camps, in health pandemics like HIV or Ebola and humanitarian crisis due to cyclones or earthquakes, one out of three women are beaten, abused, stalked, assaulted, tortured, raped, trafficked and sexually exploited, coerced into slavery, so called honour killed, burnt alive for dowry and sold or forced into child marriage. This means over a billion women and girls of all ages are affected.   Globally, 47 per cent of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner or family member, compared to less than 6 per cent of murders of men. Women represent 55 per cent of victims of forced labour and 98 per cent of the victims of sexual exploitation. Globally, an estimated 200 million women and girls have undergone Female genital mutilation (FGM) in 30 countries and 700 million were married as children.   The necessary global norms and standards to end violence against women have been set. We have the Agreed Conclusions of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 57 which set out a global plan of action on the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls (EVAW), building upon the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Platform for Action, the international Declaration on EVAW, and Regional Conventions.   But the paradigm shift came as part of the Gender Equality compact in the first ever, universal, comprehensive and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted at the United Nations last year.   It declared the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls (EVAW) as essential for the achievement of sustainable development and enshrined EVAW in all its forms as Sustainable Development Targets in SDG 5 on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, with linkages to other SDGs including SDG 16 on just and peaceful societies.   We know what the underlying causes of this very complex and pernicious phenomenon is. Harmful traditions, customs and cultural norms, gender stereotypes and inequality and patriarchal political, economic and social structures manifest themselves in this most egregious violation of women’s human rights.   This in turn creates and perpetuates an environment of impunity for perpetrators. Men typically indulge in violence as an exercise of their inherent power, entitlement, superiority and a sense of ownership of women by them.   This is the mirror image of the sense of vulnerability, fear, shame, helplessness, resignation and dependence felt by women and girls who are victims and survivors of such violence.   We now have insights on how we can change and demolish these structures that breed violence and despair for both women and their families and communities, hold them back from achieving their potential and leave them behind in every way.   UN Women has worked with the international community to set out guidelines and tools for implementing the Four Ps of EVAW – Prevention, Protection, Prosecution of Perpetrators and access to justice for victims and survivors and Provision of critical services from helplines to one stop multi service crisis centers and long term rehabilitation and empowerment support.   The enactment of laws, policies and special measures and their effective implementation including through targeted institutions and interventions by governments is vital.   Movement building for mindset change and change in social norms by all sectors of society including the private sector, women’s organizations, youth, faith-based groups and men and boys is also necessary.   All of this of course requires investment – of political will, social capital and financial resources. And it’s worth it both from the perspective of the heavy human and material cost and hemorrhaging of resources violence against women continues to exact otherwise and the enormous social and economic benefits that ending violence brings with it.   Apart from the immense emotional and psychosocial cost of violence against women and girls, there are high economic costs. Beyond the direct medical and judicial costs, child and welfare support, violence against women takes a toll on household and national incomes and budgets and poverty reduction efforts.   This is on account of lost opportunities for education, income, productivity and employment of affected women and girls. Annual costs of intimate partner violence alone were calculated at US$5.8 billion in the United States and US$1.16 billion in Canada. In developing countries these are several fold and under-estimated.   In Australia, violence against women and children costs an estimated US$11.38 billion per year. Domestic violence alone costs approximately US$32.9 billion in England and Wales. Conservative estimates indicate that the cost of violence against women could amount to around two per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP).   It should come as no surprise that domestic and intimate partner violence cause more deaths and entail much higher economic costs than homicides or civil wars.   Experience has shown that when women are free from violence and have the power to make their own choices, the chains of poverty can be broken, families and communities grow stronger, peaceful and secure, children are better protected and their chances of a better life becomes more viable, environmental awareness deepens, and opportunities for civic and political engagement based on inclusivity and socially constructive values are able to flourish.   Thus allocating adequate and significantly increased resources to ending violence against women is not only a legal obligation and a moral imperative, but a sound investment too. This is true for all communities on every continent.   Despite this truth, in many parts of the globe women still face multiple forms of discrimination and remain undervalued and underutilized, violated and aggressed against.   The resources dedicated to addressing the issue do not match the scale of the challenge let alone the scale and scope of the multiple benefits it will yield. It’s a global public good that must be delivered and invested in.   This is the theme of this year’s UNiTE to End Violence Against Women Campaign and 16 days of Global Activism to end violence against women and girls around the world.   All stakeholders must invest to benefit women and girls as well as the whole of society and the economy. They must heed our call for transformative investment in gender equality, women’s empowerment and the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls so we are able to fulfill the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and truly build a future where no one is left behind.   With a focus on prevention, the UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign last year involved more than 80 countries throughout the 16 Days of Activism in November and December. The UNiTE Campaign and its Orange Your World campaign reached 310 million people through social media in 2015.   While this represents a massive scale in terms of outreach and advocacy, today we need to translate this type of support into concrete commitments on investing in the Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls.   We want to encourage governments to place a stronger emphasis in improving national and regional capacities to collect internationally comparable prevalence data on violence against women in an ethical and methodological sound manner, according to available global standards.   We call on the international community to support UN Women and other agencies and civil society work on the provision of essential services package for women and girls subject to violence. Quality service provision for survivors of violence, including domestic violence, across the health, police, justice and social services sectors.   Another key initiative is the human rights based safe city and safe public spaces programme aimed at preventing and responding to violence, including sexual violence against women and girls.   We need the international community to invest in our mission. We are the first generation in history with a real possibility to change the relations between men and women to create significant and lasting gender equality and end gender based violence.   We are the first generation with a full understanding of the multiple and intersecting harm caused by violence against women and girls and the unacceptable cost - human and economic.   We can and must be pioneers in demonstrating that violence against women and girls – in homes, at work, in public spaces or even in the cyber world is not inevitable nor is the resulting harm, suffering and lost opportunity their inescapable destiny.   We must ensure that all necessary resources are deployed and investments made to secure a future free from the tyranny of violence against women and girls.   * Lakshmi Puri is Deputy Executive Director of UN Women Visit the related web page
	Stop the atrocities and protect the millions of civilians in Syria by OCHA, ICRC, Concern, Mercycorps, agencies   July 2017   Syria: "I repeat my call for the UN Security Council to act to protect civilians" - UN Humanitarian Chief   The conflict in Syria continues to grind on, day by day, month by month. A conflict where there can be no victory on the battlefield, a conflict which will not end by the use of force. All that this relentless and senseless fighting provides are hollow advances or retreats, leaving behind utter devastation for the civilians left in its wake. I don’t need to paint a picture, you have seen them along with the rest of the world, an outraged world – not an indifferent world, but an indignant, furious world that can’t understand why you, the Security Council, can’t fix it.   So, we must be clear: 13.5 million people are caught in a protection crisis that threatens their lives on a daily basis. It affects so many because we have seen time and again a complete disgraceful disregard for the rules of war, subjecting civilians to the horrifying reality of bombs raining down on schools, hospitals and residential areas every day.   The use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in urban areas is unconscionable, with the utmost consequences for civilians in the immediate and long term. We know this. Those fighting know this. Those who support the different parties know it too. And, for sure, those civilians who have suffered years of war know this.   When explosive weapons are used in populated areas, 92 per cent of people killed or injured are civilians. Ninety-two per cent. And those who might be lucky enough to survive the bombs, but whose homes are destroyed and are forced to flee face a whole new set of protection challenges – from mines and unexploded ordinance, to forced conscription, sexual abuse and violence, to restrictions on basic rights such as freedom of movement.   It is our duty as fellow human beings to stand up and say enough. To demand an end to these practices. To stop the needless death, and to help those whose lives have already been destroyed.   Each month, the United Nations and humanitarian partners do all in our power, in the face of extreme difficulty, to reach those who are most in need. Again my admiration and tribute to the courage and persistence of the humanitarian aid workers on the ground – from the United Nations and our international humanitarian partners and knows no bounds. And they are not a target – or shouldn’t be – but sadly in Syria today they are..   http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/syria-i-repeat-my-call-council-act-now-protect-civilians-un-humanitarian   May 2017   Statement by ICRC President Peter Maurer on his recent Syria trip. (ICRC)   This is my 5th visit to Syria and each time I come, I see more suffering. Nearly half of the population has been displaced and all are exhausted by conflict. The humanitarian needs are enormous, and in parts of the country affected by ongoing fighting these needs are in fact rising sharply.   This is especially true in hard-to-reach places. The irregularity of help is exposing these populations to risks including poor nutrition, unclean water, or inadequate medical care.   Above all, what is clear to me is that even if the conflict ends tomorrow, the need for humanitarian aid will be daunting.   During my visit, I met with Syrian officials and we spoke about these humanitarian needs. I stressed my desire to expand further ICRC’s regular access to civilians and detainees and I emphasized the critical importance for all sides in the conflict to better facilitate our work on the ground, with swifter and unimpeded access.   On the ground, I was impressed by the dedication of thousands of the volunteers of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) who work with us to help people in need. Together with the SARC, we are ready to boost our neutral humanitarian operations, we are ready to increase the delivery of vital aid. But access is absolutely critical. We cannot help people we cannot reach.   I am encouraged by the gradual progress we’ve made on delivering aid across the lines of conflict. In 2016 we carried out eight times as many crossline operations as in 2015, and since the beginning of this year have delivered aid in 19 such operations. We can do this because of our honest and direct dialogue with all parties to the conflict.   Yet it is very clear that short-term relief alone is not enough. As important is the long-term process of building resilience that we can support alongside. We will be scaling up our livelihood programmes to respond to the expectations of those who now need more sustainable solutions, like cash grants or small business projects, to rebuild their lives.   I have been fortunate in this trip to hear directly from people trying to survive under extremely difficult circumstances. Driving to Zabadani, the destruction is clear and devastating. In Ein Al-Fijeh I met school teachers – themselves displaced by fighting – concerned at what the lost years of education mean for the future of so many Syrian children. I was moved when 13-year old Manar, one of the young Syrian girls I met at SARC’s psychosocial centre in Al Tal, offered me a handmade gift.   The Syrian crisis is first and foremost a protection crisis and we must see the rules of war respected. We all need to keep helping Manar and others to deal with psychological scars of this conflict. We will continue to engage with Syrian authorities to address the needs of families whose relatives have gone missing, to help improve the treatment of detainees and their conditions, and to reach civilians trapped in the fighting.   It is also obvious that a political solution is essential to end this suffering. However, this solution cannot distract from the needs of people like those I met this week. Aid must be separate from the political process and this process must not blind the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.   http://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/middle-east/syria/syrian-people   Dec. 2016   2017 Humanitarian Needs in Syria Overview.   As the syria crisis enters its sixth year, civilians continue to bear the brunt of a conflict marked by unparalleled suffering, destruction and disregard for human life. 13.5 million people require humanitarian assistance, including 4.9 million people in need trapped in besieged and hard-to-reach areas, where they are exposed to grave protection threats.   Over half of the population has been forced from their homes, and many people have been displaced multiple times. Children and youth, millions of whom have known nothing but conflict, comprise more than half of the displaced, as well as half of those in need of humanitarian assistance. Parties to the conflict act with impunity, committing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.   Syria is the largest protection crisis of our time. Since the onset of the conflict in 2011, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. Some 30,000 people suffer conflict-related trauma injuries every month, roughly 30 per cent of whom develop permanent disabilities. Parties to the conflict repeatedly breach international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL).   In some instances, attacks appear to directly target civilians and civilian infrastructure, are indiscriminate, or breach other IHL rules protecting civilians.   Tens of thousands of Syrians are missing since the conflict began, thousands in circumstances suggesting forcible displacement. Others have been subject to torture and other forms of ill treatment in detention.   The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and affiliated groups use suicide bombs in civilian areas outside its control, while in ISIL areas of influence, public beheadings, physical mutilation, the sexual enslavement of women and girls, indoctrination and forced recruitment of children continue unabated.   Persistent and extreme violence, forced displacement, family separation, lack of civil documentation, and an increase in poverty, further limiting coping mechanisms, have extended the scope and severity of protection threats faced by people in Syria.   Mass conflict-induced displacement has led to significant demographic change within Syria. In addition to some 4.8 million people registered as refugees in neighbouring countries, 6.3 million people are displaced within Syria itself.   Meanwhile the rate of displacement continues unabated. On average, 6,150 people were displaced per day between January and August 2016. Over one million displaced people live in collective shelters, camps or makeshift settlements as the option of last resort.   Among conflict-affected communities, life-threatening needs continue to grow. Neighbouring countries have restricted the admission of people fleeing Syria, leaving hundreds of thousands of people stranded in deplorable conditions on their borders. In some cases, these populations are beyond the reach of humanitarian actors.   Their lives and livelihoods shattered by almost six years of conflict, many people in Syria endure a struggle for survival. For millions of people, coping strategies have been exhausted, stretching their resourcefulness to its absolute limit.   An estimated 69 per cent of people now live in extreme poverty, supporting their families on less than US$2 per day, of which an estimated 35 per cent live in abject poverty, characterized by severe deprivation of the basic food required to survive.   Access to essential services, including health care, safe water, and education, has been severely disrupted. Families are resorting to unsustainable and unsafe means of survival, including forced and/or early marriage, child labour, child recruitment, survival sex, and temporary marriages.   * UNOCHA 2017 Humanitarian Needs in Syria Overview (60 page): http://bit.ly/2iBlGoo   Dec. 2016   At a UN General Assembly meeting 122 countries expressed “outrage” at the ongoing violence in Syria, particularly war-battered Aleppo, adopting a resolution demanding an immediate and complete end to all attacks on civilians as well as an end to all sieges in the war-ravaged country. They expressed grave concern at the continued deterioration of the devastating humanitarian situation in the country and demanded “rapid, safe, sustained, unhindered and unconditional humanitarian access throughout the country for UN agencies and all humanitarian actors”: http://bit.ly/2gv022n   Dec. 2016   Global Civil Society Appeal to UN Member States protect the millions of civilians in Syria by 223 civil society organizations   The UN Security Council has failed Syrians. In almost six years of conflict, close to half a million people have been killed and eleven million have been forced to leave their homes.   Most recently, the Syrian and Russian governments and their allies have carried out unlawful attacks on eastern Aleppo with scant regard for some 250,000 civilians trapped there. Armed opposition groups have also fired mortars and other projectiles into civilian neighbourhoods of western Aleppo, though according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “indiscriminate airstrikes across the eastern part of the city by Government forces and their allies are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties.” Efforts to stop these atrocities and hold those responsible to account have been blocked repeatedly by Russia, which continues to misuse its veto power in the Security Council.   The UN’s special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has warned that the UN must not allow “another Srebrenica, another Rwanda, which we are sadly ready to recognize written on that wall in front of us, unless something takes place.” Yet, there is no sign that the Security Council deadlock will end anytime soon. The guardian of international peace and security has failed to fulfill its task under the UN Charter and has failed to uphold its responsibility to protect the Syrian people.   This is why we, a global coalition of 223 civil society organizations, urgently call upon UN member states to step in and request an Emergency Special Session of the UN General Assembly to demand an end to all unlawful attacks in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria, and immediate and unhindered humanitarian access so that life-saving aid can reach all those in need. Member states should also explore possible avenues to bring perpetrators of serious crimes under international law on all sides to justice.   We strongly urge all Member States to join the 73 countries from all regions by endorsing their initiative. These countries should work toward an Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly at the earliest opportunity, as UN member states have done in the past when the Security Council was deadlocked.   We call in particular upon the 112 supporters of the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT) Code of Conduct, which includes a pledge to support “timely and decisive action” aimed at preventing or ending the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, to join this effort and actively promote meaningful action through the UN General Assembly.   Inaction should not be an option. UN member states should use all the diplomatic tools at their disposal to stop the atrocities and protect the millions of civilians in Syria. History will judge harshly those that fail to step up.   * 223 civil society organizations including the Association for Aid and Relief Japan, Concern Worldwide, ActionAid, Human Appeal International, Amnesty International, GOAL, International Court of Justice, War Child UK, Norwegian Church Aid, Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE, Christian Aid, Mercy Corps, Human Rights Watch, People in Need, Solidarités International, Physicians for Human Rights, Oxfam, International Rescue Committee, Qatar Red Crescent Society, Save the Children, World Vision, Dorcas Aid International, IHH, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, SUDO (UK), Bihar Relief Organization, Syrian Network for Human Rights, Syrian American Medical Society Foundation, Syrian Institute for Justice (JUSTICE)..   Nov. 2016   “The fifth war winter is starting in Syria. There is no doubt it will be the worst in this cruel war, and I fear it will be a real killer in too many places,” Jan Egeland, Special Advisor to the UN Special Envoy for Syria, told reporters in Geneva.   “Some of the areas are freezing cold, horrible conditions, and people will be in need of digging themselves down in the ground in extreme cases,” he said, explaining that humanitarian convoys are being blocked physically or administratively from reaching them, or they cannot depart because of crossfire or insecurity.   “I have not seen a place where there has been so much politicization, manipulation of aid, as we have seen in Syria in recent months. It has to stop,” he said.   http://bit.ly/2fGHmNv http://bit.ly/2eGCDI7
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