Seminar on violence against women in Asia-Pacific Sept 23

The seminar of Asia-Pacific parliaments on ‘Ending the cycle of violence against girls in Asia-Pacific’ will be held in Dhaka on September 23-25. The three-day conference will be jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad. A preparatory meeting in this respect was held at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban with Senior Secretary at the JS Secretariat M Ashraful Moqbul in the chair. The meeting has decided to form a ‘seminar cell’ for coordinating different ministries and organisations to make the conference a success. An official familiar to the process said that violence against women and girls continues to be a major issue on the international human rights and health agenda. It is a universal phenomenon, differing only in scope and nature from one society to another, he said. Quoting some statistics, he said, the figures are alarming: globally six out of every 10 women will fall victim to physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes; one out of five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape on some point in her life; 35 per cent of all murders of women in the world are committed by an intimate partner; 14.2 million girls are married each year before their eighteenth birthday. The seminar will be open to members and staff of the members of parliaments of 37 states of Asia and Pacific region. Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam. Pacific: Australia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, according to BSS.