UNIFEM: Say NO to Violence Against Women

Launched in November 2007, the initiative was designed to feed into UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's campaign the Unite to End Violence against Women. It has since served as a platform for hundreds of thousands of concerned people to add their names to a global call to action, demanding that the issue be made a top priority globally.

Joining the Say NO campaign will signal support to the efforts of the Secretary-General and the targeted outcomes for this campaign, namely:-

* National legislation on violence against women and enforcement thereof;
* National action plans;
* Data collection and analysis;
* Increased public awareness and social mobilisation and
* Systematic addressing of sexual violence as a method of warfare.

Signing the campaign can serve as an effective opportunity to create awareness, engage the media or introduce new national initiatives.

Ending Violence Against Women is an issue that effects the individual, communal, national and global sphere. The statistics globally demonstrate the need for action because one out of every three women is likely to be beaten into sex or experience some form of abuse in her lifetime. Specifically, within South Africa a woman is raped every 26 seconds. The UN Secretary General - Ban KiMoon - has endorsed the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) campaign "Say NO to Violence against Women" which invites people to add their names to the web site: www.saynotoviolence.org. The campaign objective is publicly addressing the need to end Violence Against Women through reaching the global target of 1 million signatures by 25 November 2008.