The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is on November 25 and is followed by the Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender Violence.  Violence Against Women is global pandemic in many forms.  See the  Infographic: Violence against women for more information.

In 2013 the office published the results of a survey of services provided globally by Good Shepherd Sisters in 24 countries.  This is in 3 languages on the website English French and Spanish

Outcome Document CSW 57  Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls is available in all 6 languages of the UN and is well worth reviewing.  It will be reviewed during CSW 60 in March 2016.

What has your country to celebrate in terms of ending gender based violence and what tis the more that needs to be done?

Here is the link to the tool kit for the 16 days campaign  Toolkit

2015 Call to Action: “Orange the World: End Violence against Women and Girls”  Good ideas in the toolkit from engage your Government to orange cyber space!  Use orange on your Facebook page and use the hashtags  #orangetheworld and #16days

Transforming our World: 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goal 5 Target 5.2 ‘Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.’

Check out our position papers Prostitution of Women and Girls  ‘The prostitution of women and girls is a chronic form of gender violence that has been structurally embedded in societies over the centuries. Good Shepherd’s position echoes the UN 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others “that prostitution is incompatible with the dignity and worth of the human person, and endangers the welfare of the individual, the family and the community…” Prostitution is, by its nature, exploitative and is never part of a global decent work agenda.’