Fifteen years ago, the U.S. government recognized the urgent need to pass the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) as a legislative means of combating violence against women and families. With the historic legislation came the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) at the Department of Justice which focuses on overseeing the government’s efforts in ending gender-based violence. VAWA and OVW are part of the world wide campaign to end violence against women and families.
On December 17, 1999, the United Nations designated November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. As the United Nations reminds us, the day serves to encourage “governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. Women’s activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).”
For more information on global gender-based violence, visit the United Nations.
