FIGO advocated to eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls
Commitment description:Health services are critical for supporting survivors to heal, recover and thrive.
During FIGO World Congress in 2018 we launched FIGO’s 2018 Global Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women where we committed to undertake actions to support efforts to address the issue, recommending that FIGO National Member Societies:
• Urge their governments to implement the recommendations made by the 1994 ICPD Programme of Action and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action to adopt advocacy, legal, educational and other measures needed to make violence against women unacceptable to all individuals and groups in society and develop and implement national guidelines or protocols for providing quality health care for women experiencing violence, in line with WHO guidelines
• Ensure that violence against women is included in the curricula of all health care providers, including reproductive health, in the specialist training and in continuing education programmes for health providers
• Strengthen the availability of and access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services that include care for survivors of intimate partner violence and post-rape care
• Strengthen health systems in order to provide women-centered care and services to survivors of violence
• Include Violence Against Women as a regular item of their national congress, with involvement of policy makers and other relevant stakeholders
• Own and be accountable for their responsibility to identify and provide confidential and respectful care for women who are experiencing violence, including providing first-line support and assisting women in the legal prosecution of cases of sexual abuse and rape, if they wish to pursue this, by careful and sensitive documentation of the evidence in line with national reporting requirements
• Support their patients experiencing violence, including through active referrals to psychosocial support and legal services
Mode of engagement:
- Policy and guidanceFIGO's 132 National Member societies commit to advocate for strategies to address violence against women in their communities, towns, cities or countries and collaborate with women’s health and rights organizations, which advocate for women
Address gender-based violence and the harmful practices of child, early and forced marriages and female genital mutilation(5) (a) Zero sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices, including zero child, early and forced marriage, as well as zero female genital mutilation; and (b) Elimination of all forms of discrimination against all women and girls, in order to realize all individuals’ full socio-economic potential.
