The United Nations has asked member states to step up their efforts in fighting violence against women and girls. The call was made by the UN resident coordinator in Rwanda Lamin Manneh (pictured) as he opened an international campaign dubbed “Stop the violence – speak out for girls’ rights,” on Monday.Lamin said that special emphasis should be put on preventing violence from occurring by tackling the root causes. “This includes tackling the deeply entrenched cultural and social norms as well as discriminatory laws and policies that hold women back from reaching their full potential, and instead promote violence against them,” he said.The UN official also said that there is need to engage men and boys to address so-called negative masculinities which influence boys and young men to think that violent behaviours are somehow cool and necessary to prove that one is a real man.According to Henriette Umulisa, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, government devised policies to protect women and girls. She, however, said despite these efforts, there is still a long way to go.“I hope that as you deliberate, you will come up with tangible mechanisms of bringing change in our societies and strengthening the knowledge-based practices exchange within the region and beyond,” Umulisa said.According to the Demographic Health Survey 2010, 56 per cent of women aged 15 to 49 years reported that they experienced physical or sexual violence atleast once in their life time. According to the UN one billion women, one in every three women will experience some form of sexual violence in their life time.
