Women’s Commission Condemns Recent Violent Attacks Against Women

The National Women’s Commission has issued strong condemnation of the recent series of violent attacks that have made it to the news, one of which ended in the murder of a woman in Calcutta Village. “Violence against women remains devastatingly persistent and starts alarmingly young,” the Commission states, citing new data from the World Health Organization. The Commission further makes reference to the frequency at which women around the world are made to endure physical or sexual violence. That number stands at one out of every three women, and that frequency has remained that way for the past ten years. The National Women’s Commission says that, as the advisory body of the Government of Belize on gender equality, equity, and women’s empowerment, it continues to advocate for programs that not only engage and empower women but also engage and rehabilitate the perpetrators of this type of crime. It goes on to call on the authorities to have a zero-tolerance approach to violence against women, making reference to the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women which Belize ratified in November of 1996.