We are pleased to invite you to a public gathering organized by the BaBe Association on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on Tuesday, November 25, 2014, at 11:55 AM, at Dr. Franjo Tuđman Square, Vukovar.
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, established by the United Nations on December 17, 1999, commemorates the day when sisters Patriu, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal were brutally murdered in the Dominican Republic in 1960 on the orders of dictator Rafael Trujillo. The sisters, along with their husbands, were part of a group that planned to overthrow Trujillo's dictatorship, and today they stand as a symbol of all women who have been abused.
Violence against women is present in all societies and all levels of society, it occurs within the family but also outside it, and the number of reports of abuse is, unfortunately, far lower than the actual number of cases of abuse. One in three women in the European Union is a victim of violence, according to a study just published by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). According to research, in the world, including Croatia, at least one in three women has experienced some form of violence from former or current partners, and estimates of the frequency of physical and sexual violence against women in the world range up to 60%!
Domestic and sexual violence are the two main forms of gender-based violence, which means that in more than 90% of cases, women are the victims, as confirmed by official data from the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia. According to a conference on the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence held in the Croatian Parliament, in the last ten years, as many as 300 women have been killed by their husbands, partners, sons or family members.
Let your voice be heard against violence against women! Let's gather in as many numbers as possible to unitedly say "No!" to violence and draw public attention to a complex problem that destroys not only the individual, but also their children, family, and community.
The program participants are:
Ivan Penava, Prof. - Mayor of Vukovar
Ivana Sučić, BaBe - program manager Providing existential protection and psychosocial support to women victims of violence and their children in Vukovar-Srijem County
Safe house user
Vukovarski golubići - children's choir
Zoran Cikovac - music performer
The gathering was organized with the financial support of the Ministry of Social Policy and Youth and in partnership with the City of Vukovar, the Županja Social Welfare Center, the Zadar Social Welfare Center (Gračac branch) and the Zagreb Social Welfare Center as part of the Counseling Center for the Prevention and Suppression of All Forms of Violent Behavior in the Family and Protection from Discrimination of Other Socially Vulnerable Groups program.
