In observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which falls on 25 November, the United Nations has launched a dramatic 16-day campaign to mobilise everyone to raise awareness on the issue of gender violence.
The campaign called 'Orange Your Neighbourhood" -- with the colour designated by the UN Secretary-General's UNiTE to End violence against Women -- has invited everyone to raise awareness on the issue. "Take the UNiTE campaign to local streets shops and businesses, and organize 'Orange Events' in your own neighbourhoods between 25 November and 10 December 2014," the UN official website says.
Orange Your Neighbourhood is part of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's campaign UNiTE to End violence against Women. The theme will carry through related events during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based violence, which run between 25 November and 10 December (Human Rights Day)
Hashtags #Orangeurhood and #16days are being used on social media platforms to raise awareness.
"Together, we must end this global disgrace," Ban said at a special pre-lighting ceremony at the Empire State Building on Monday. "It is up to everyone to play their part; women's rights are not only women's business. Men and boys are finally taking their place as partners in this battle."
Here are some heartbreaking facts about violence against woman in the world, according to the United Nations:
- 4.5 million People across the globe are victims of forced sexual exploitation. 98%
of them are woman and girls.- 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical or sexual violence – mostly by an intimate partner.
- Only 52 countries in the world have explicitly criminalised rape within marriage. In fact, 2.6 billion women and girls live in countries where marital rape is not explicitly criminalised.
- In European Union, 45 to 55% of women have experienced sexual harassment since the age of 15.
- 133 million girls and women alive today have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (procedures that intentionally alter or cause injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons) in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is more common.
- 700 million women alive today were married before 18 – more than one-third were married before 15. Poor girls are 2.5 times more likely to marry in childhood.
- In 2012, 1 in 2 women killed worldwide were killed by their partners or family.
- About 120 million girls have been forced into intercourse or other sexual acts at some point in their lives
