Violence against women and girls is one of the most systematic and widespread human rights violations.
Given the racist and patriarchal patterns of the state, it is difficult to envision the state as the holder of solutions to the problem of violence against women of color. However, as the anti-violence movement has been institutionalized and professionalized, the state plays an increasingly dominant role in how we conceptualize and create strategies to minimize violence against women.
The United Nations defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
As many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way - most often by someone she knows, including by her husband or another male family member.
Gender-based violence is one of the most pervasive and yet least-recognized human rights abuses in the world.
CARE is participating in a groundbreaking summit to end sexual violence in conflict.
The violence perpetrated by men against women must stop - and it's up to men to stop it. It is up to men to speak up and step in when they witness violence against women, and it is up to men to condemn the indefensible actions of the few and assert the will of the many.
