Violence against women is a technical term used to collectively refer to violent acts that are primarily or exclusively committed against women. Similar to a hate crime, this type of violence targets a specific group with the victim's gender as a primary motive.
The United Nations General Assembly defines "violence against women" as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life." The 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women noted that this violence could be perpetrated by assailants of either gender, family members and even the "State" itself.
Worldwide governments and organizations actively work to combat violence against women through a variety of programs. A UN resolution designated 25 November as International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Read more about Violence Against Women: History of Violence Against Women, Impact On Society, Activism
Famous quotes containing the words violence and/or women:
“Violence upon the roads: violence of horses;
Some few have handsome riders, are garlanded
On delicate sensitive ear or tossing mane,
But wearied running round and round in their courses
All break and vanish, and evil gathers head:
Herodias’ daughters have returned again.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I’ve always felt that English women had to be approached in a sisterly manner, rather than an erotic manner.”
—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)