13 December 2012

Media Release

NCWNZ Supports UN Call For Action On Femicide

“We are very much behind a UN call for action to tackle the global problem of femicide - the killing of women and girls because of their gender, ” National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) President Barbara Arnold said today.

She was commenting on the Vienna Declaration on Femicide, resulting from a UN Symposium in September 2012.

“Femicide can take many forms, including the murder of women as a result of intimate partner violence, and it is never acceptable.

“The Vienna Declaration urges member states to support the introduction of a goal on ending violence against women in the post-2015 development agenda, with a specific target of reducing by half the number of femicides by 2025.

“In New Zealand, an average of 14 women are killed by their partner or ex-partner each year. Of course, we’d like this figure to be zero, but we are supportive of a target aimed at significant reduction,” Barbara Arnold said.

“Following a meeting in New York in July this year, the UN committee monitoring the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) asked the New Zealand Government to take more action to tackle violence against women.

“One of the committee’s recommendations highlighted the importance of collecting and publishing data, disaggregated by sex, ethnicity, type of violence, and by the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim. The Government has also been asked to collect data on the number of women killed by partners or ex-partners and to monitor the effectiveness of legislation, policy and practice relating to all forms of violence against women and girls.

“We think that the Monitoring Committee’s recommendations would definitely be a good starting point,” concluded Barbara Arnold.

ENDS

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