Large scale actions are being carried out here and there and colossal resources are being used all over the world for the respect of human rights, but women continue being victims of serious violence despite decades of mobilisation and sensitisation by women organisations on the phenomenon. In this context, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General, conscious of the serious consequences of violence against women at all levels of society and its negative impact on the efforts aiming at reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), launched, on February 28th 2008, the world campaign “United to end violence against women and girls”. It deals with all forms of violence and emphasises on prevention, accountability, policy design, implementation and the end of impunity.

The main objective of this mobilisation is to eliminate violence against women. It aims at sensitising the public (men, women, youth, media and private sector) and increasing political will and resources for preventing and answering all forms of violence against women. “We must unite. Violence against women cannot be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any circumstance, by any political leader or by any government.”

In West Africa, the launching of this campaign on last November 26th, by Mrs. Cécile Mukarubuga, UNIFEM regional director, happened in the framework of the 16 - day activism to end violence against women and answered a double expectation. On one hand, it answers the UN concern to integrate an African perspective into the world campaign, and on the other hand, it aims at making this action more operational in this part of the world where an unprecedented increase in violence against women is caused by socio political tensions. According to statistics, unfortunately, West Africa is the place where are perpetrated the most various forms of violence whose characteristics correspond to those condemned by the United Nations Declaration on violence against women”, she declared.

This is a call for the society at all levels, from the youth to the highest placed leaders to actors of the civil society. Concretely, before the end of this campaign in 2015, deadline for reaching the MDGs, we must get mobilised and work for results such as States putting the eradication of violence against women on their national agendas, an increasing support to women and institutions working on the eradication of this phenomenon, the vote and enforcement of laws, and the setting up of data bases.

In this regard, an Africa regional steering committee was created to give orientations on how to conduct this African campaign. The committee will contribute to identify and define regional strategies. Let us recall that this committee took its first meeting on November 15th in Banjul (Gambia) in addition to the 8th African regional conference on women. It is composed, for the moment, of United Nations agencies such as UNIFEM, UNFPA, UNICEF, the Economic Commission for Africa, partners as Denmark, Sweden and the African Development Bank and members of the civil society such as WILDAF-West Africa, FEMNET, Gender Links and the Arab Women Alliance.

WILDAF-West Africa, as a member of the steering committee, fully supports this campaign and participated in the launching of the West Africa campaign in Dakar in Senegal.

If, as WILDAF, you share this conviction with Mr. Ban Ki-Moon “There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable”.

So let us act right now!

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« Africa-Unite » to end violence against women: the regional campaign is launched ->

Violence against women is now widely acknowledged, as a manifestation of deeply entrenched unequal power relations between men and women. In Africa, in the absence of reliable data, it is widely accepted that violence against women is pervasive, and as a result, millions of women continue suffering from this scourge.

In their efforts to curtail this horrendous human rights violation, the United Nations launched on 30th January 2010 in Addis Ababa, the campaign “Africa-Unite”, which is a regional component of the Secretary –general’s global campaign “Unite to end violence against women and girls”? which started since February 2008. This campaign stated that violence against women is a form of discrimination and that African States must respect the commitments taken through the adoption of international and regional instruments such as CEDAW and the Protocol in order to eliminate violence. Thus, “Africa-Unite” aimed to address all forms of violence against women and girls in Africa through prevention, adequate response, policy development, implementation and ending impunity. With the ultimate goal of reducing the prevalence of violence against women, the campaign aims:

- to raise public awareness and increase the political will and resources to eliminate violence in Africa
- to create favourable and supportive environment for governments, in partnership with civil society, experts, entities of the United nations system and other stakeholders to fulfil existing policy commitments.

In order to achieve these objectives, the Africa component of the Secretary-General’s campaign will focus on key strategies such as regional and national advocacy, supported by various actors including Heads of states, the African Union and the Regional Economic Communities so as to engage them in the battle against gender-based violence. A call is thus made for all African States to reinforce their laws towards gender violence. Finally, the campaign will include strategic groups in particular , men and women, youth, civil society, women’s organizations, private sector, media who all have a critical role to play in stopping violence against women and girls.

More than thirty African States representatives took part in the launch and joined the campaign by lightning on an Africa map a light, which is a symbol of their national commitment against gender-based violence.

The event was held prior to the African Union Heads of State Summit and brought together the officials of the institution, representatives of the UN agencies such as UN Economic Commission for Africa, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and NGOs including WiLDAF-West Africa, member of the steering committee.

It is to remind that in November 2009, the campaign for West-Africa was launched at the initiative of Mrs. Cecile Mukarubuga, director of UNIFEM-West Africa based in Dakar.