Join us on Wednesday, December 4, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. (Washington DC, or EST) for the dialogue: Violence against Indigenous and afro-descendant women and girls and from other ethnic groups. This event is part of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, convened by the United Nations every year between November 25 and December 10, concluding on International Human Rights Day, which marks the 76th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights.
Objectives:
- Reflect, based on the experiences of Indigenous and Afro-descendant women, on new ideas and next steps to strengthen the health sector's response to survivors of violence against women from different ethnic groups in the Americas.
- Promote dialogue and exchange experiences among different stakeholders in the Region of the Americas to prevent violence against women and girls from Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and other ethnic groups, in line with the Policy on Ethnicity and Health, the Strategy and Plan of Action on Ethnicity and Health 2019-2025 and the Strategy and Plan of Action on strengthening the health system to address violence against women 2015-2025 of PAHO.
- Present the report entitled “Violence against Indigenous, Afro-descendant, or other ethnic women and girls in the Region of the Americas: Cross-cutting analysis of information.”
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
- DAY: Wednesday, December 4, 2024
- TIME: 2:00 p.m. (Washington DC, or EST) [Check the bottom of this page for the time in other cities]
- LANGUAGES: English, Spanish, and Portuguese with simultaneous translation.
- REGISTRATION: https://paho-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MmfMCf-NSbeniM8gN4IFFA#/registration
CONTEXT
Understanding the magnitude, risk and protective factors, and consequences of violence against women is the first step towards preventing and responding to it. Violence against women affects a significant portion of the population of the Americas and generates enormous costs for both health and well-being as well as social and economic development. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 1 in 3 women and adolescents over the age of 15 have suffered physical or sexual violence by their partner or non-partner sexual violence throughout their life. Violence against women manifests itself in various forms, all of them equally unacceptable. Barriers to accessing care and support are greater for certain population groups, including Afro-descendant, Indigenous, and other ethnic women in the Region, although we do not have precise figures. Generating data broken down by stratifiers such as ethnicity is essential for designing and implementing more equitable and effective health policies. These data make it possible to identify, among other things, inequalities in access to health services. The need to collect and analyze data broken down by ethnicity and address the social determinants that influence violence against women is made explicit in the Policy on Ethnicity and Health, its Strategy and Action Plan, and in the Strategy and Action Plan on strengthening the health system to address violence against women.
In this context, PAHO, with the support of Global Affairs Canada, launched a regional study that compiled available information on violence against women belonging to Indigenous Peoples, Afro-descendants, and other ethnic groups living in the Americas through a participatory dialogue based on equality about the information that is known and what is not. The report “Violence against Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and Other Ethnic Women and Girls in the Americas” (in Spanish) is the result of this effort. It seeks to advance toward a comprehensive response that takes into account the different types of violence, the factors associated with acts of violence, as well as the different dimensions of discrimination that affect women and girls from these population groups.
RELATED LINKS
Campaign: International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Violence against Women (PAHO´s webpage)
TIME IN OTHER CITIES
- 11:00 a.m.– Los Angeles, Vancouver.
- 1:00 p.m. - Tegucigalpa, San Salvador, San Jose (CR), Mexico City, Managua, Guatemala City, Belmopan.
- 2:00 p.m. – Bogota, Panama City, Kingston, Lima, Quito, Washington D.C., Havana, Nassau, Ottawa, Port-au-Prince.
- 3:00 p.m. – Caracas, Port of Spain, La Paz, San Juan, Santo Domingo, Georgetown, Bridgetown.
- 4:00 p.m. - Asunción, Buenos Aires, Brasilia, Montevideo, Santiago, Paramaribo.
- 8:00 p.m. – Geneva, Madrid.
For other cities, please check local time at the following link.