Regional Partners Join Forces for Asia-Pacific Forum on Preventing Violence against Women and Girls Through Social Norms Change

[PRESS RELEASE]

Regional development partners today kicked off a forum on preventing violence against women and girls, bringing together over 80 technical experts, policymakers and practitioners from across the region working to prevent violence against women and girls through social norms change. The forum is jointly organised by UN Women and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade, with support from UNFPA and the Korean Women’s Development Institute.

The forum is a part of a series of events that began on 25 November International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, marking the beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, a time to galvanize action to end violence against women and girls around the world. These events included the lighting up of the Australian Embassy in Bangkok in orange – in support of the United Nations’ Orange the World campaign – and an international film festival featuring nine award-winning feature films and documentaries from around the world on issues of violence against women.

Participants at the two-day regional forum will share promising practices and approaches to prevent violence against women and girls that is backed by the latest evidence. The forum will focus in particular on how to address the fundamental drivers of violence through social norms change.

Reflecting on the pervasiveness of violence against women, the Regional Director of UN Women, Roberta Clarke said: “We need to work harder and smarter on prevention, understanding better the social psychology of violence against women. And we need to keep connecting this work to structural determinants of intersecting inequalities, taking account of how poverty undermines the capacity to resist, how, for example, ethnic marginalisation can also isolate, how the absence of labour rights protection increases vulnerability to abuse and violence."

“Eliminating violence against women, everywhere, is an Australian Government priority domestically and is a part of Australia’s foreign policy and overseas aid programme,” said H.E. Mr. Paul Robilliard, Australia’s Ambassador to Thailand. “In Australia where 1 in 3 women have experienced physical violence and 1 in 6 are abused by an intimate partner, the Prime Minister announced a $100 million (Australian dollars) package of new measures to address this epidemic. Australia’s Foreign Minister has also introduced the first target for the aid program to ensure 80 per cent of Australia’s development assistance tackles gender inequalities.”

Violence against women is a significant human rights violation that severely limits women’s social, economic and political participation. In Thailand, and the ASEAN region more broadly, Australia is working with regional partners to help improve justice systems for victims of various forms of violence and exploitation, including human trafficking. Across the Asia-Pacific region, the UN is working with governments and civil society to adopt and enforce laws to end impunity for violence, enhance women’s access to justice and support services, and increase social mobilization for prevention

Recognizing the critical role played by men and boys in challenging these human rights abuses, there will be a special session on “male champions of change” that will include several leading male advocates working to promote gender equality, healthy relationships, and a new vision of masculinity.

At the end of the forum, UN Women will produce a set of tools with practical actions and programmes that have had some success in breaking down harmful gender stereotypes, attitudes and behaviours that lead to men’s violence against women and girls.

For media inquiries:

Korbua Laorujijinda
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Montira Narkvichien
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