Campaign aims to stop violence against women

 Pair of red shoes next to note reading in Mexico With more and more women being specifically targeted as murder victims in Latin America and so-called feminicide continuing in Europe, a group of civil society networks launched a campaign Wednesday to stop violence against women.
A video launched in the European Parliament -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvLP1qINrxY -- states that in Europe one of every four women is a victim of physical or psychological violence in her lifetime.
In Italy alone, 137 women were murdered in 2012, more than half of them by their partners.
Meanwhile five of the 12 countries with the highest rates of murdered women are in Latin America.
In Guatemala 658 women were murdered last year while in Colombia, 52 women a day were victims of sexual violence in 2011, an increase against 2010.
Although the killing of women is mainly a domestic issue, "in Mexico for example, drug trafficking and the fight against organized crime threatens women?s safety", said Ska Keller, a lawmaker for the Green/ALE Group.
Socialist group MEP Marc Tarabella called on European countries to ratify the 2011 Istanbul Convention, the globe's first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women.
Last week the European Parliament called on European Union institutions to insist deals signed with any country included an agreement against gendercide, the forced abortion of female foetuses.
Source: AFP