The 97th International Women’s Day is being celebrated today with the theme “Ending impunity for violence against women” by organising various programmes.
Issuing a statement on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon has said that this day is an opportunity for all of us-women and men-to unite in a cause that embraces all humankind.
“Empowering women in not only a goal in itself. It is a condition for building better lives for everyone on the planet,” he added.
Stating that violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture, the UN Secretary General said, “International Women’s Day spells out our responsibility to work for enduring changes in values and attitudes. It calls us to work in partnership-governments, International organisations, civil society and the private sector.”
“It urges us to work for a transformation in relations between women and men at all levels of society. It compels us to strengthen every means of empowering women and girls-from education to micro credit,” he added.
Similarly, in her message, Executive Director of UNIFEM, Noeleen Heyzer, stressed the need of implementing various commitments made to empower women and to provide them justice.
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, said that UNFPA is committed to working with partners to combat discrimination and violence against women and girls.
“UNFPA will continue to work within the United Nations system and with governments and civil society to put national action plans in place that prevent and address violence against women. We will continue to promote human rights, including the right to sexual and reproductive health, women’s empowerment and gender equality,” she added.
Issuing a statement, United Nations agencies working in Nepal reiterated that violence against women is not a women’s issue alone but an issue affecting all members of Nepali Society.
The statement quoted UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nepal Matthew Kahane as saying that virtually excluding women from the political arena, not giving women adequate access to education and information and barring women from decision-making positions is also a form of violence against women.
Meanwhile a report said that neither the government nor the Maoists have any record of cases of sexual abuses that took place during the insurgency.
So much so, neither of them has developed any mechanism till now to track down the number, characters, nature and seriousness of such cases though much has been talked about human rights violations and ending impunity.
Only 54 cases of rape involving security forces, vigilantes, unknown groups and the Maoists in 30 districts are documented by the Advocacy Forum-Nepal. However, only seven of the rape cases involving security forces have been taken to the courts, according to the forum.
The Himalayan Times daily quoted Kopila Adhikary, the forum’s programme coordinator as saying, “In some cases the Maoists forced women into sexual exploitation on the strength of their arms. Though cases of sexual exploitation are recorded, because of the nature of violence, social stigma attached to victims and lack of security, family members do not want to go ahead with the case or come up with it openly.”
We are documenting the past rights violations so that victims are recognised and if the government plans to address their cases, they would get justice, Adhikary added.