Elimination of Violence Against Women

The “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women,” instituted by the UN in 1999, is celebrated each year on 25 November, as an invitation to the governments, international organisations and nonprofit Associations to undertake campaigns to raise public awareness and bring about change. Much has been done, but there is still a lot to do. There is no need to go to faraway countries to see cruel violence still practiced on women, even in our own environments and in the most sordid silence.

The words of St. John Paul II still echo forcefully in the apostolic letter, Mulieris dignitatem (MD, 15/08/1988), which underlines that “God created man and woman to his image, not only as singles, but in their common humanity, as a “two-fold unit.” Woman and man therefore, are essentially equal, and are both persons, called as such to participate in the intimate life of God and live in mutual communion in love, based on the model of God who is Love, which is unity in the Trinity, and to reflect in the world the communion of love in God (MD 7).” It is a goal which we can refer to daily, as individuals and as a society.