Violence against women - Alison Domonoske

Today at our first official day of CSW sessions I attended some great informational panels. First, the World Health Organization hosted a discussion on preventing and responding to violence against girls and women (VAW)—framing it as a public health and political problem. Here, I was please to hear that over 123 countries have criminalized VAW in the past two decades but shocked to learn that 53 countries still don’t recognize forced marriage (rape) within a marriage as a crime. All the speakers called for more evidence, research, programming and evaluation in VAW so that accurate policies can be implemented—it was a very inspiring call for activists.

Quote from WHO violence against women panel.

Peggie Ramaphane, leader of WoMen against rape, leads the WHO VAW call to action.

Then I attended a panel on women in political leadership. A couple of the panelists were Corine Mauch, the first female mayor of Zurich, Switzerland and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the executive director of UN Women. Hearing their stories about women in politics around the world, including Mlambo-Ngcuka and her anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa, amazed me and gave me hope for future female political leaders. I also learned that Switzerland only gave women the right to vote in 1971!!! I still can’t believe that. Tomorrow I’m looking forward to attending events on Armed Conflict in the Arab world, reproductive rights, climate change and a high-level ministerial panel.