International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
hrea.org25 November 2011 — In December 1999, the 54th session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 54/134 declaring November 25th the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The origins of November 25th go back to 1960, when the three Mirabal sisters from the Dominican Republic were violently assassinated for their political activism. The sisters, known as the “Unforgettable Butterflies”, became a symbol of the crisis of violence against women in Latin America. November 25th was the date chosen to commemorate their lives and promote global recognition of gender violence, and has been observed in Latin America since the 1980s.
Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. According to UNIFEM, at least one in three women in the world has suffered from violence, usually by someone known to her. In many societies, bias in the legal system and community attitudes add to the trauma.
The Silent Violence Against Women Worldwide
towardfreedom.com“November 25th is the UN-proclaimed International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Violence against women is a year-round occurrence globally and continues to an alarming degree. Such violence is an attack upon women’s bodily integrity and dignity. We need to place an emphasis on the universality of violence against women, the multiplicity of its forms and the ways in which violence, discrimination against women, and the broader system of domination based on subordination and inequality are inter-related. The value of a special ‘Day’ is that it serves as a time of analysis of the issue and then of re-dedication to take both short-term and longer-range measures for solutions…”
Eduardo Galeano on the Three Mirabal Sisters (the Mariposas) on November 25th, Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
“El 25 de noviembre de 1960, tres militantes contra la dictadura del generalísimo Trujillo fueron apaleadas y arrojadas a un abismo en la República Dominicana. Eran las hermanas Mirabal. Eran las más lindas, las llamaban mariposas. En su memoria, en memoria de su belleza incomible, hoy es el Día mundial contra la violencia doméstica. O sea: contra la violencia de los trujillitos que ejercen la dictadura de cada casa.”
On November 25th 1960, three freedom fighters against the dictatorship of General Trujillo were beaten to death and thrown into a ditch in the Dominican Republic. They were the three Mirabal sisters. They were so pretty, people used to call them “the Butterflies”. In their memory, in the memory of their undomitable beauty, today is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In other words, [this day is] against the violence that some men, some small-scale Trujillos, exert in the domestic dictatorships they’ve turned their home into.
