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The eradication of violence against women and girls.

Article Excerpt
[Editor's note: The following is an edited version of a recent statement by the Baha'i International Community, titled "Beyond Legal Reforms: Culture and Capacity in the Eradication of Violence Against Women and Girls." The full statement can be read at: http://statements.bahai.org/060702.htm]

By many measures, the status of women and girls has improved significantly over the last 50 years. They have achieved higher rates of literacy and education, increased their per capita income, and risen to prominent roles in professional and political spheres. Moreover, extensive local, national and global networks of women have succeeded in putting women's concerns on the global agenda and catalyzed the creation of legal and institutional mechanisms to address these concerns.

Notwithstanding such positive developments, a relentless epidemic of violence against women and girls--perpetuated by social norms, religious fanaticism, and exploitative economic and political conditions--continues to wreak havoc in every corner of the world.

The challenge now before the international community is how to create the social, material and structural conditions in which women and girls can develop to their full potential. The creation of such conditions will involve not only deliberate attempts to change the legal, political and economic structures of society, but, equally importantly, will require the transformation of individuals--men and women, boys and girls--whose values, in different ways, sustain exploitative patterns of...

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