The International Violence Against Women Act

The widespread inequality and injustice faced by women around the world is a moral, economic, health, and human rights problem. It is detrimental to the greater community where it takes place. By not empowering women, a great resource for economic and social development is wasted.

Women hold great responsibility and importance in society – as caretakers of children, wage earners, community organizers, etc. There are countless examples of women like you who devote their time, energy, and resources to further education and development of their families and communities. Despite this, they continue to be disenfranchised, discriminated, abused, and exploited worldwide.

The International Violence Against Women Act is a great step towards recognizing the need to address this issue, and taking action to protect and support. It will initiate a more centralized, organized effort to protect women’s rights, and make it a foreign policy concern incorporated into the scopes of work of development assistance programs. This will provide more incentive to and/or requirements for governments and organizations receiving aid to enforce justice and support programs at the local as well as national level.

The statistics of rates of gender-based violence are grave, vast, and hard to grasp (according to Amnesty International, one in every three women worldwide has been physically or sexually abused), it’s personal stories that touch the heart. But these stories not only need to be heard, they need to be acted upon.