Josephine’s partner beat her and her stepsons regularly. He beat them when he got drunk.
He beat her when she refused to watch him have sex with his girlfriends. Most of the time he beat her to force her to have unprotected sex with him so she could have his child.
In 2007, Josephine (not her real name) fell pregnant. She left her stepsons and her partner, seeking shelter with her parents. She was HIV-positive. After her baby was born, Josephine’s family discovered her HIV-status. Since then, she has received regular beatings from her brothers. Josephine desperately needs a place to stay. There are only three safe houses in the capital, Port Moresby, where she lives – each run without government assistance, and each struggling from a lack of resources. The situation is even worse outside the capital. There is an urgent need for more shelters for women fleeing violence in Papua New Guinea. Until then, Josephine will suffer the daily brutality meted out by her family members because she has nowhere safe to go.

DO SOMETHING!

PLEASE SIGN AND SEND THIS POSTCARD TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA, URGING HIM TO PROVIDE MORE SHELTERS FOR WOMEN SUFFERING FROM VIOLENCE IN THE HOME.

PNG_postcard action

OR sign action online

Download, print, sign and send this postcard action calling for more shelters for women fleeing domestic violence in Papua New Guinea
Women suffering from violence in the home in Papua New Guinea do not have protection because there are too few shelters available. The few shelters that exist are by and large run without government assistance, and they have to rely on donors’ funding or international NGOs for resources. The severe lack of shelters for women in Papua New Guinea is a prime example of the government’s chronic inaction and failure to meet its obligations to protect women’s human rights in the country.

Call for action:
There is an urgent need for more shelters for women fleeing violence in Papua New Guinea. We can support the work of local activists who provide shelter support to women suffering from domestic violence by calling on the Papua New Guinean government to:

• Set up at least four new shelters across the country before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November 2010 and expand funding for existing private shelters;

• Equip these shelters with a 24-hour hotline and counselling services.

Nepali human rights defender, explaining how a new strong international agency for women could benefit women locally. Saathi Roundtable, Nepal, 2007.

The United Nations is a galvanizing force in setting new international standards and commitments to protect and promote women’s human rights especially those at risk of violence, or facing poverty. But the UN’s capacity to support national implementation of these international agreements is woefully underfunded and inadequate. This has limited the potential for women around the world to fully enjoy their rights in practice.

The four small UN agencies exclusively dedicated to women’s issues lack the necessary status, funding and country presence to enable the wider UN system and national authorities to fully implement their obligations. Other, larger UN agencies, sometimes can make a difference, but advancing women’s human rights and gender equality is usually a small part of their mandate. And none of these agencies are adequately supporting the important work of women’s human rights defenders.

In September 2009, after years of persistent campaigning by women’s human rights advocates around the world, all 192 member states of the UN General Assembly finally adopted a resolution agreeing to the creation of a consolidated and stronger UN agency for women.

“The General Assembly has at last taken decisive action to create a new gender equality entity on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference in 2010. It is a great victory for women’s rights as well as for the coalition of women’s and other civil society organizations. Now we must ensure that it is a robust and transformational body, capable of advancing the realization of women’s rights on the ground, urgently and effectively.” Charlotte Bunch, Founding Director, Center for Women’s Global Leadership, USA.

In order to achieve this, the agreed new women’s agency urgently needs sustained political commitment from all governments and immediate, substantial funding to ensure its effective establishment and success.

Take action! Show your support for a new strong UN women’s agency!

Show your solidarity for women worldwide and sign the global petition to the President of the UN General Assembly!

The United Nations is a galvanizing force in setting new international standards and commitments to protect and promote women’s human rights. But, the UN’s capacity to support national implementation of these standards and commitments is woefully underfunded and inadequate. This has limited the potential for women around the world, especially those at risk of violence, or facing poverty, to fully enjoy their rights in practice,

A global network of over 300 women’s, human rights and social justice groups representing millions of people, are campaigning for a new strong UN agency for women to effectively support the protection and promotion of women’s human rights.

As the representative of all 192 UN member states, the President of the UN General Assembly, His Excellency Dr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, can help to prioritize the establishment of the new UN women’s agency, making sure it becomes fully operational in 2010 – the 15th anniversary year of the Beijing World Conference on Women.

The new UN agency for women must have:

• World coverage and the necessary country presence and strong policy and programmatic mandate to effectively improve the lives of women worldwide.
• Accountability mechanisms in place at both national and international levels, including through meaningful involvement of civil society, particularly women’s non-governmental organizations.
• Substantial and predictable resources to ensure the capacity to meet expectations and deliver results at all levels. It must be funded initially at a minimum level of $1 billion USD, with increases over time.
• An Under-Secretary-General, appointed by International Women’s Day on 8 March 2010, in order to lead the agency.

Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day against Violence against Women, and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates, including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre (in 1989 on that day fourteen women were shot to death in the University of Montreal’s School of Engineering).

Historically, the 16 Days Campaign has been instrumental in using a human rights framework to draw global attention to the worldwide problem of violence against women. In its early years (1991-1992), 16 Days activists initiated a worldwide petition calling for the United Nations to place women’s human rights issues on the agenda for the World Conference on Human Rights in June of 1993 in Vienna, Austria. By the time of the conference, the petition had collected half a million signatures in 23 languages from 124 countries. The petition helped secure a formal declaration of women’s rights as human rights and of violence against women as a human rights violation in the Vienna Declaration. Also, in 1999, the 16 Days Campaign was part of successful efforts to push the United Nations to declare November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

November 25 was declared International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women at the first Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogota, Colombia, July 18-21, 1981. The “feminist encuentros” are conferences of feminists from Latin America who come together every 2-3 years in a different Latin American country in order to exchange experiences and to reflect upon the state of the women’s movement. At that first Encuentro, women systematically denounced all forms of gender violence from domestic battery to rape and sexual harassment to state violence including torture and abuse of women political prisoners. November 25 was chosen to commemorate the violent assassination of the Mirabal sisters (Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa) on November 25, 1960 by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic.

Activists at the local, national and regional levels have realized successes through activities as varied as media campaigns, campus rallies, art exhibitions, lobbying, roundtable discussions, theatre performances, tribunals, and workshops.

Over 2,000 organizations in approximately 154 countries have participated

in the 16 Days Campaign since 1991!

Every year, Centre for Women’s Global Leadership composes a campaign theme in consultation with women’s human rights advocates worldwide and then circulates an announcement for the campaign as widely as possible. The themes over the years are as follows:

1991/1992: Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights

1993: Democracy without Women’s Human Rights . . . is not Democracy

1994: Awareness, Accountability, Action: Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights

1995: Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing: Bringing Women’s Human Rights Home

1996: Bringing Women’s Human Rights Home: Realizing Our Visions

1997: Demand Women’s Human Rights in the Home and in the World

1998: Building a Culture of Respect for Human Rights

1999: Fulfilling the Promise of Freedom from Violence

2000: Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Campaign

2001: Racism and Sexism: No More Violence

2002: Creating a Culture That Says ‘No’ to Violence Against Women

2003: Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights: Maintaining the Momentum Ten Years After Vienna (1993-2003)

2004/2005: For the Health of Women, For the Health of the World: NO MORE VIOLENCE

2006: Celebrate 16 years of 16 days: Advance Human Rights ↔ End Violence Against Women

2007: Demanding Implementation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence Against Women!

2008: Human Rights for Women, Human Rights for All: UDHR60

2009: Commit ▪ Act ▪ Demand: We CAN End Violence Against Women!