Fiscal Note
No fiscal impact.
Title
Proclaiming November 25 - December 10, 2021 as the “16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence.”
Body
WHEREAS, the crime of violence against women and girls
· continues to be the most pervasive human rights violation and a global epidemic,
· is due to systemic use of physical, emotional, verbal, sexual, psychological and economic control and/or abuse,
· does not know any national nor cultural barriers and affects millions of women and girls of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds, in peacetime and conflict,
· violates an individual’s privacy, dignity, security and humanity,
· results in serious short-term and long-term physical, sexual, reproductive and mental health problems, including increased vulnerability to HIV; and
WHEREAS, according to UN Women, “As COVID-19 cases continue to strain health services, essential services, such as domestic violence shelters and helplines, have reached capacity [and] more needs to be done to prioritize addressing violence against women in COVID-19 response and recovery efforts”; and
WHEREAS, the World Health Organization estimates that 35% of women worldwide have experienced physical and/or sexual violence; and
WHEREAS, according to UNICEF, “around 120 million girls under the age of 20 worldwide (about one in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts”; and
WHEREAS, more than 650 million women alive today were married as children and 12 million girls are married before the age of 18 each year; and
WHEREAS, according to the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, “the most common form of human trafficking (79%) is sexual exploitation”; and
WHEREAS, the World Health Organization estimates more than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation in countries where this practice is concentrated; and
WHEREAS, elder abuse, predominantly affecting women, occurs wh...
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