CityU at forefront of campaign to protect women from violence

The Southeast Asia Research Centre of City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is co-organising, through its Research Programme Consortium on Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Contexts (WEMC), an international forum to commemorate the 2007 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly has designated 25 November as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women since 1999, following its adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women in 1993.

According to UN statistics, at least one woman in three worldwide is subjected to violence, often life-threatening, at some point of her life. Increasingly, the international community agrees that violence against women is a serious global problem.

The Southeast Asia Research Centre at CityU has been engaged in programmes to promote the well-being of women. It was awarded a HK$53m grant in 2006 by the Department for International Development of the UK Government to help fight the poverty and inequality experienced by women living in Muslim communities and countries. The grant will fund a five-year research project entitled “Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Contexts: Gender, Poverty and Democratisation from the Inside Out”.

As part of the commemoration for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Monday, 26 November 2007 at Istanbul Bilgi University, WEMC of the Centre is co-organising the international forum on “Culture, Women, Violence: rejecting ‘cultural’ justifications for violence against women” with the European Institute, Centre for Migration Research, and the NGO Training and Research Unit of Istanbul Bilgi University.

Despite the international consensus on the need to eliminate violence against women globally, violence against women persists in many societies. One key reason for this is the misuse of ‘culture’ by certain countries, groups and individuals to justify violence against women. Through this misuse, these countries, groups or individuals attempt to exempt themselves from the laws that support women’s rights or from international human rights obligations.

Under the banner title of ‘No Excuses for Violence against Women’, the commemoration will begin with the launch of a Global Campaign to Stop Stoning and Killing Women, organised by Women Living Under Muslim Laws.

This will be followed by the international forum which will include international and Turkish speakers and participants, many of whom have worked for years in support of women’s rights and human rights. The forum will also provide valuable input for the reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Professor Yakin Ertürk, who will be the Keynote Speaker for the day.

The commemoration is supported by the UK Department for International Development, the Association for Women’s Rights in Development, and Mama Cash Foundation in the Netherlands.

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Media enquiries: Lin Chew, Communications Consultant, WEMC (852-6443 8694, email: [email protected]) or Craig Francis, Senior Communications Officer, CityU

(852-3442 6802, email: [email protected])