Kathmandu, November 24

One out of three women experience physical or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner, in South-East Asia, including Nepal, according to World Health Organisation.

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• Campaign against GBV beginning today

A press statement statement issued here today by Dr Poonam Khetrpal Singh, World Health Organisation Regional Director for South-East Asia, on the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women that falls on 25 November, said that the statistics on violence against women are shocking globally.

“Violence against women and girls has become a public health issue,” reads the statement, adding, “It not only has immediate and long-term impact on physical, psychosocial and mental health of victims but it affects and impedes their progress in other areas, including poverty reduction, peace and security.”

It said the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is observed from the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on 25 November to the Human Rights Day on 10 December and the theme for the campaign this year is ‘prevention’.

It further said that the first UN framework on Preventing Violence Against Women is being launched tomorrow.“The prevention framework is based on change theory. It focuses on changing social norms and attitudes towards women and suggests various strategies in particular education,” it said.

According to the statement, prevention would need a holistic approach with multiple interventions undertaken in parallel in order to have a long-lasting and permanent impact and the strategies will require multisectoral action including from communities, schools, agriculture, economy and trade, media and the health sector.

“We must unite and unanimously say no to violence against women and girls,” said Singh in the statement.