Vienna Discussion Forum – Ending violence against women through crime prevention, criminal jus

21 November 2019

Director General Li Yong,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to this first-ever Vienna Discussion Forum. I would like to thank Finland, Norway and Sweden as well as UNIDO for co-organizing.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was established by the General Assembly to commemorate the Mirabal sisters, three women activists from in the Dominican Republic who were brutally assassinated on 25 November 1960.

It is therefore both fitting and an honour to have Ambassador Victoria-Kruse of the Dominican Republic as our keynote speaker, and I thank you for joining us today.

It is a sad and disgraceful fact that women and girls continue to be subjected to violence, including rape and sexual violence – in times of peace, but also as a weapon of war and terrorist attacks.

Abuse and harassment, including online, persist on a continuum of gender-based violence that culminates in the vulnerable dying at the hands of people closest to them. Indeed, of the eighty-seven thousand women and girls intentionally killed in 2017, more than half were killed by their intimate partners or other family members.

But we can save lives with timely interventions to prevent and stop the violence.

Integrated approaches from the health, social, police and justice sectors can help to tackle this multi-dimensional challenge.

Together with WHO and UN Women, UNODC has developed prevention strategies to build resilience through economic empowerment, strengthening enabling environments, reinforcing legal frameworks and making support available to all.

We have joined forces with UNFPA and other UN entities to develop an “Essential Services Package” currently deployed in ten countries, ahead of a global roll-out, which helps women get out of violent situations earlier and improve their chances of escaping the cycle.

By setting and helping to implement standards for policing and prosecution, UNODC supports Member States in improving crime prevention and criminal justice responses to violence against women. Through our work, we have seen that having more women in decision-making roles in justice and law enforcement can be critical to strengthening responses.

In keeping with our Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, UNODC strives to integrate gender issues systematically across our work, including our Doha Declaration initiative on education for justice.

UNODC’s most recent Global Report on Trafficking in Persons explored different forms of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation, covering aspects of sexual violence against women in conflict and post-conflict situations. This year’s Global Study on Homicide featured a dedicated section examining the killings of women and girls.

Gaining a better understanding of violence against women can help us to further tackle enabling conditions.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Gender-based violence stops women and girls from exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms. It hinders achievement of all of the Sustainable Development Goals – not only Goal Five on gender equality – and holds back humanity from fulfilling our potential.

All of us here recognize this basic truth.

It is precisely forty years since the signing of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women. We stand on the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action.

We cannot allow progress to continue to fall short.

I hope that today’s discussion will contribute to comprehensive solutions and coordinated action. UNODC is here to support you.

Thank you.