The United Nations has provided a line of 6.415 million U.S. dollars in grant to the government of Benin for projects intended to eliminate gender-based violence and promote human rights in the West African country.
A funding agreement was signed on Friday in Cotonou by the Beninese Development Minister Marcel de Souza and Sorgho Mounier, the UN coordinator in Benin.
"At the level of the United Nations, we have found it unacceptable that some populations are not entitled to all attention they deserve due to their gender," Sorgho Mounier said.
In Benin, the minister of family affairs has commissioned a study of violence to evaluate the scale and motivity of violence against women in the country.
According to the study, 69 percent of the women in Benin have suffered at least one violent treatment in their lives. Of those suffering violent treatment, 88 percent has been subjected to verbal abuse, and 75 percent to caning or several other types of violence, the study reveals.
The same study indicates that 88.1 percent of the girls in Benin are subjected to caning, 87.1 percent to abusive language insults, and 89 percent to human trafficking.