In the United States of America
600 women are sexually assaulted each day.
Almost 4 women a day are killed and 20 per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner
1 in 5 women have experienced a rape or attempted rape - of these half were under 18 and 1 in 5 were under 12.
1 million women are stalked each year
More than half a million women have been victims of, or are under threat of genital mutilation. At least ⅓ of them are under the age of 18.
All of these statistics represent just part of the problem as these crimes are horribly, sadly, fearfully under-reported. This is just the tip of the iceberg that is gender-based violence in our country. The statistics for forced prostitution and labor, human trafficking, child marriages, physical and sexual abuse of elderly, trans, and disabled individuals, abuse of refugees and migrants, harassment, honor killings and other gender-based offenses are equally shocking.
November 25, 2020 marked the UN’s
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
On this day Democrats Abroad’s Global Womens Caucus launched an Eliminating Violence Against Women Action Team. The effort is led by Marnie Delaney and, given the scope of the problems, will require the efforts of as many volunteers as possible around the globe. Our goals will be:
To educate our members and other U.S. citizens on the massive issues related to gender-based violence,
To activate individuals to become involved in the fight to eliminate such violence and
To advocate for the legislation and other necessary efforts to combat a crisis which, particularly since Covid, is becoming worse on all fronts.
The Violence Against Women Act, first written and sponsored by President-elect (then Senator) Biden and, in the old-fashioned spirit of bipartisanship, Senator Orrin Hatch, was passed in 1994. In 2019, reauthorization was held hostage by Mitch McConnell’s obstructionist Senate with encouragement from organizations like the NRA, conservative “research” and “news,” and other organizations. This will undoubtedly be one of the first major pieces of legislation addressed by the new Administration and it will be an effort which we hope to support with tremendous energy. Needless to say, there are a great many other important pieces of legislation in Congress and in the states which deserve our attention.
The Global Women’s Caucus will be holding an important meeting on January 23 to review all of our plans for 2021 (from each Action Team and more) and we encourage you to join us. We know you are all heavily involved in the Georgia campaigns through the beginning of January, however if you already know you have interest in becoming involved with one of the Global Women’s Caucus campaigns, please let us know at [email protected].
Ann Hesse, Chair, Global Women’s Caucus, Democrats Abroad