Overview

Violence against women and girls is now well established as a form of gender-based discrimination that violates fundamental human rights. International and regional treaties, conventions and agreements call for the prevention and prosecution of violence against women, and for redress for complainants/ survivors. United Nations bodies such as the Security Council and the General Assembly have passed comprehensive resolutions stressing the importance of state involvement at all levels in preventing and ultimately eliminating violence against women. These instruments hold states accountable for failing to act with due diligence to protect individual women and girls from acts of violence, for ensuring that law enforcement, the judiciary, and health care and social service providers are trained in the dynamics of gender violence, for providing reparations to survivors, and for providing them with assistance, often best accomplished through consistent and adequate funding to women’s NGOs, which have the trust of survivors and the expertise to provide them with assistance.