UNDP Against Violence Home Page

A LIFE FREE OF VIOLENCE: IT'S OUR RIGHT

UNITED NATIONS INTER-AGENCY CAMPAIGN ON WOMEN'S HUMAN RIGHTS IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

UNIFEM-UNDP-UNFPA-UNICEF-UNAIDS-UNHCR-UNHCHR-ECLAC

Welcome. This new web site is brought to you by the United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean as part of its contribution to the United Nations Inter-Agency Campaign on Women's Human Rights. To the extent possible, the information included within is a compilation of material provided by all partner agencies including UNDP and its country offices. More detail on respective agencies' work on the campaign may be found by clicking on the agency name in the blue navigation bar on any page; this links to their sites with information on particular contributions to the campaign.

Work on this site is on-going and several sections, such as those for regional products and national campaign activities, shall be updated periodically. As well, homologous national reports on gender violence are being produced by UNDP country offices in 19 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. At the present time thirteen have been completed for the following countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Panama, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. We will be adding newly completed reports as they become available.

We invite you to join, formally and informally, as individuals and institutions, in the partnership to eliminate gender violence within our lifetimes. Welcome to our site.

Violence Against Women and Girls, Violence Against Women and Girls constitutes the single most prevalent and universal violation of human rights. The United Nations, in keeping with the spirit of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, works in many ways to eliminate this morally unacceptable scourge. One such effort in 1998-99, focussing attention on the issue of gender violence, is the "UN Inter-Agency Campaign on Women's Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean" to combat violence against Women and Girls.

This public awareness and advocacy campaign draws upon the opportunities presented by the 50^th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is through the principles and challenges agreed upon by over 194 governments at the 1994 UN Conference on Human Rights, that a new global perspective was placed on the seriousness of the discrimination and injustice faced by women around the world. As a result of this commitment, as well as, two key international instruments, the Beijing Declaration from the 1995 Conference on Women, Peace and Development and the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), that we are now able to take bold steps and make wide strides in eradicating the most prevalent and universal injustice against women. The Campaign in Latin America and the Caribbean is co-coordinated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). It is sponsored by eight UN agencies and has received formal endorsement from 22 governments within the Latin America and Caribbean region. As well, active participation of NGOs, public and private institutions and civil society at large, have all contributed to the success and dynamics of the National Campaigns at regional, national and local levels.

Executive Summary: the inter-agency campaign sponsored by UNDP, UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNHCR, UNHCHR, and ECLAC draws on the network of representatives and staff members of each sponsoring agency as well as the UN Information Centers NGOs, and public and private institutions throughout the region for advocacy, capacity building, media communication, distribution of materials, and arrangement of events. Products for advocacy, regional products consist of TV & radio spots; a web-site, e-mail releases, articles for the press on linkages between violence and human rights, poverty, citizenship, population, etc, distributed for key dates; pins, pens, posters, stickers, t-shirts; world guide on the status of women in Latin America and the Caribbean, production of regional magazine MARIA MARIA, and regional comparative reports on the situation of violence against women.

The Campaign for Women’s Rights aims at alerting society to the universal prevalence and the unacceptable high social and economic costs of gender violence