Violence against women has been recognized internationally as a major violation
of a woman’s human rights. This was formalized in 1993 with the United Nations
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which, building upon
themes developed at the World Conference on women held in Nairobi, stated that
violence against women is both a result of and an obstacle to the achievement of
women’s equality, affecting all women world-wide.1
Echoing this, the 1995 Beijing
Platform for Action of the Fourth World Conference on Women not only called for the
elimination of all forms of violence against women, but more specifically recommended
that work be done to