Soroptimists Nisha Ghosh and Naina Shah from India have
visited the UN in Vienna to share information about femicide
and agencies working to support women and girls in their country.   The
visit was arranged by SI’s lead UN Representative in Vienna, Dora Vrdlovec, and
included a meeting with Civil Affairs Officer (Advocacy Section) Mirella Dummar
Frahi from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Femicide, the killing of women and girls because of their sex,
includes the killing as a result of intimate-partner violence,
"honour" and dowry related killings; killing as a result of sexual
orientation, sexual identity or accusations of witchcraft; female infanticide
and sex-selective abortions and violent deaths of women resulting from human
trafficking. 

 

Soroptimist International UN Reps in Vienna have been working
with other NGOS to promote understanding and encourage international action on
this growing global problem.  In March
2013 SI delivered an
oral statement on femicide, jointly authored with the Vienna NGO Committee
on the Status of Women (NGO/CSW), at the
57^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at UNHQ in New
York. The statement called for concerted action from Member
States, the UN and other international entities and civil society organisations
and several of its recommendations were adopted in the final outcome document
agreed by Member States.

Soroptimists in India are working to raise awareness of all
forms of violence against women and girls, including femicide. Sujatha
Balakrishnan of SI Bangalore exposes the shocking
extent of female feticide in this SoroptiVoice blog from March 2013.
Naina
Shah from SI Chennai Downtown is the Programme Action Chair for the National
Association of Soroptimist International in India, while Nisha Ghosh from SI Pune
Metro East is Friendship Link Coordinator for the SIGBI Federation.

Images: Top (l-r)  Mirella Dummar
Frahi, Civil Affairs Officer, UNODC; Nisha Ghosh, SIGBI Friendship Link Coordinator; Naina Shah, NASI Programme Action Chair