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UN / WOMEN WRAP
STORY: UN / WOMEN WRAP
TRT: 2.50
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 4 MARCH 2013, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
4 MARCH 2013, NEW YORK CITY
2. Zoom in, General Assembly
3. Pan left, audience
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women:
“This is not just one more session. This is not just one more year. So much has happened since we last met. The world is watching as we come together to prevent and end violence against women and girls. Recent events and protests point to a growing awareness and momentum. Over the past few months, women and men and young people took to the streets with signs that asked ‘where is the justice?’ with rallying cries that said ‘wake up.’”
5. Med shot, audience
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women:
“Now it is the time for action. It is time for action when up to 70 percent of women in some countries face physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime; when intimate partner violence accounts for between 40 and 70 percent of female murder victims in Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa, and the United States; when one in three girls in developing is likely to be married as a child bride; when some 140 million girls and women have suffered Female Genital Mutilation; when millions of women and girls are trafficked in modern day slavery, and when women’s bodies are a battleground and rape is used as a tactic of war. It is time for action.”
7. Pan left, audience applause
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jan Kenneth Eliasson, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations:
“Many of you may have personally dealt with or experienced, even, violence against women and girls. Certainly most of you know someone who has. You have shared their grief, you have shared their anger. We are here today, these weeks in New York, to channel our outrage into action.”
9. Pan left, audience applause
10. Wide shot, press conference dais
11. Med shot, cameras
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet, Executive Directors of UN Women:
“What we have seen with the horrific situations that lead to Malala and these women in South Africa and in India, I think there is a rising momentum on the people, on the people who are really, I would say, demanding that we progress on that.”
13. Med shot, journalists
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women:
“We shouldn’t use as an excuse, culture, tradition, social norms, religion, because there is no religion and no culture that really supports violence against women and girls.”
15. Med shot, audience
16. Various shots, journalists
17. Zoom out, dais
The United Nations commission focusing on women today (4 March) kicked off its annual session with a call to eliminate violence against women and girls, a global scourge that affects millions around the world.
The Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, speaking at the opening of the two-week session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York pointed to various incidents that have occurred during the past year around the world against women and girls that have sparked massive public outcries, and stressed that it is more urgent than ever for governments to act on this issue.
She said “recent events and protests point to a growing awareness and momentum.”
These events include the injuries suffered by Malala Yousafzai a Pakistani girl shot for defending the right to education, as well as a young woman in India and another in South Africa who were brutally raped and later died.
The head of UN Women stressed that while there has been progress over the past decades in establishing international norms and standards to protect women against violence, the issue remains widespread and impunity is still the norm rather than the exception.
She said “now it is the time for action,” noting that “70 percent of women in some countries face physical and or sexual violence in their lifetime.”
Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, in his address to the General Assembly, told participants, many of them victims of sexual violence, to channel “outrage into action.”
He stressed that it will take multiple approaches to tackle this issue, from governments implementing policies to empower victims and prosecute perpetrators, to creating a culture where gender stereotypes are broken by encouraging men and boys to take an equal share of responsibilities in their home and families.
At a later press conference, Bachelet said “the horrific situations” of Malala Yousafzai and the women in South Africa and in India show that “there is a rising momentum on the people, on the people who are really, I would say, demanding that we progress on that.”
She remarked that “we shouldn’t use as an excuse, culture, tradition, social norms, religion, because there is no religion and no culture that really supports violence against women and girls.”
According to the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), in countries such as Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United States, intimate partner violence accounts for 40 to 70 per cent of female murder victims.
In addition, some 140 million girls have suffered female genital mutilation and millions more are subjected to forced marriage and trafficking.
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