Not one more: Rights, Justice, Action for All Women And Girls

Statement on GBV deaths in the Caribbean

The human rights of women — including the right to security, dignity, equality and justice — are core principles of international law.

Violence against Women is a global crisis. It is a crisis here in the Caribbean too!

In recent years, there has been enhanced legislation including Protection Orders and, increased advocacy to prevent and reduce violence against women and girls in the Caribbean. Still the numbers are too high, 1 in 2 Caribbean women who have ever been in a relationship report experiencing at least one form of violence in their lifetime (https://caribbeanwomencount.unwomen.org). This is higher than the global average of 1 in 3 women.

Essential services must be available and accessible to women of all ages. Supportive environments created online and off, whereby women can feel safe and confident to access policing, health, justice and the other critical services.

One means of effectively delivering these services are through Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Referral Pathways. This is a system that safely links survivors to supportive and competent services such as medical care, mental health and psychosocial support, police assistance and legal/justice support. Caribbean countries with UN Women support have been updating or initiating these Pathways.

Ministries with responsibility for Gender Affairs and their Bureaus of Gender Affairs lead the advocacy work to explain what  Gender-Based violence is, - violence against women and girls in particular - and spearhead initiatives to promote an all of society commitment and action to prevent and reduce #VAWG.

Violence against women and girls #VAWG deeply damages our families, our societies, our economies, our development. It constrains lives, limits options, and violates human rights and in the worst incidents, lives are lost.

The challenge now is to press forward where not one more life is lost, where women and girls, men and boys, no longer have to live in fear of nor are victim to this violence.

UN Women MCO Caribbean through our comprehensive ending violence against women programming – prevention and response - reiterates its support to Caribbean Governments to work in partnership to advance actions to eliminate this scourge from our societies.