The 83rd plenary meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations meeting in December 1999 designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, inviting
Governments, the relevant agencies, bodies, funds and programs of the United Nations system, and other international organizations and non-government organizations, to organize on that day activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem of violence against women.
http://ods-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N00/271/21/PDF/N0027121.pdf?OpenElement

The General Assembly resolution designating the day gave the following reasons for doing so:

• Violence against women is an obstacle to the achievement of equality, development and peace;

• Some groups of women, such as women from minority groups, indigenous women, refugee women, migrant women, women living in rural or remote communities, destitute women, women in institutions or in detention, the girl child, women with disabilities, elderly women and women in situations of armed conflict, are especially vulnerable to violence;

• Violence against women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between women and men, which have led to domination over and discrimination against women by men and to the prevention of their full advancement. Violence against women is one of crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into subordinate positions compared with men;

• The human rights of women and of the girl child are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. There is a need to promote and protect all human rights of women and girls;

• Women do not fully enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms. There has been a long standing failure to protect and promote those rights and freedoms in relation to violence against women.

The 25th November was chosen as the date for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women to commemorate the murder of the Mirabal Sisters under the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic in 1961. The sisters, Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa, were political activists who were repeatedly jailed for their pro-democracy activities. They were murdered by the secret police. For more information about the Mirabal Sisters see:
www.findagrave.com
http://semdom.50megs.com/mirabal_museo.htm
http://www.womenaid.org/16days/english/25november.html http://www.learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2000/sites/mirabal/English/index.html
http://www.wao.org.my/news/16days.htm

Idea for Action: In the Footsteps of the Mirabal Sisters