UN Chief vows action on crimes against women

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the international community to convert “outrage into action” over crimes against women to usher in a better future as the world observes the International Women’s Day on Friday. “This year on International Women’s Day, we convert our outrage into action. We declare that we will prosecute crimes against women – and never allow women to be subjected to punishments for the abuses they have suffered. “We renew our pledge to combat this global health menace wherever it may lurk – in homes and businesses, in war zones and placid countries, and in the minds of people who allow violence to continue.” As we commemorate International Women’s Day (March 8), we must look back on a year of shocking crimes of violence against women and girls and ask ourselves how to usher in a better future, he said in his message. “We also make a special promise to women in conflict situations, where sexual violence too often becomes a tool of war aimed at humiliating the enemy by destroying their dignity,” Ban Ki-moon said. “To those women we say: the United Nations stands with you. As Secretary-General, I insist that the welfare of all victims of sexual violence in conflict must be at the forefront of our activities. I instruct my senior advisors to make our response to sexual violence a priority in all of our peace-making, peacekeeping and peace-building activities.”