GENDER-BASED violence is the number one human rights abuse worldwide. In 2017, when the European Union (EU) invested approximately 500 million euros (US$530 million) and joined with the UN to initiate the global Spotlight Initiative, the world’s largest targeted and funded effort to end all forms of violence against women and girls, it was with a clear understanding that this issue needed a global effort.

This notion was reinforced by the former EU HRVP Federica Mogherini, who stated that, "violence against women is violence against the entire society – so the entire society must react to end it."

Unique to the Spotlight Initiative was a whole-of-society approach that placed ending violence against women and girls at the heart of national development priorities and gave local communities the tools they needed to address violence in their specific context.

Since its launch, the Spotlight Initiative has been fully implemented in five regions around the world through 26 country programmes, six regional programmes and two UN Trust Fund programmes. Its success led to the initiative being selected as one of the 12 high impact initiatives for its impact across all of the sustainable development goals. Its comprehensive approach to ending violence against women and girls has led to more transformative, sustainable results and important lessons.

Despite some progress in countries around the world, however, violence against women and girls remains a serious and challenging issue. As such, the UN’s 2024 theme, UNiTE to End Violence against Women, is a rallying cry that we must all heed.

According to the UN’s global statistics, every 11 minutes a woman is killed. More disturbing is the fact that in some countries we are witnessing a growing backlash to gender equality and women’s rights – both of which can be precursors to rising violence.

Here in TT, this past October 2024 was a troubling month with homicides reported of four women who had previously experienced intimate partner violence.

Data from UN Women points to an even more troubling statistic – 44 per cent of TT women who have ever been in a relationship have suffered some form of violence be it physical, sexual, emotional and/or economic. In addition, Government data for just the first eight months of 2024, over 1,200 cases of domestic violence and 117 of sexual abuse were reported! Restraining orders continue to be violated with fewer than half of these offenders being prosecuted.

[caption id="attachment_1122519" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Peter Cavendish, Ambassador, European Union Delegation to Trinidad and Tobago. -[/caption]

The European Union is resolute in its stand for gender equality, and we uphold a zero-tolerance policy towards gender-based violence (GBV). We believe that GBV is not only a grave violation of human rights, but also it inflicts immeasurable suffering and harms economic progress and prosperity. We are committed to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people, in collaboration with our partners around the world.