Giornata mondiale per l'eliminazione della violenza contro le donne

Oggi ricorre la celebrazione della Giornata mondiale per l'eliminazione della violenza contro le donne. L'adozione, seppure tardiva, di questa risoluzione da parte dell'Assemblea generale delle Nazioni Unite è avvenuta il 17 dicembre 1999, con la creazione di una Giornata mondiale per l'eliminazione della violenza contro le donne. La data scelta, il 25 novembre, è simbolica, perchè proprio il 25 novembre del 1960 furono assassinate le sorelle Mirabal, attiviste contro il regime Trujillo nella Repubblica Dominicana, dittatura che poi cadde circa un anno dopo l'omicidio. Ecco una breve ricostruzione  della loro storia

The three sisters, Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa were born to Enrique Mirabal and Maria Mercedes Reyes (Chea) in 1924, 1927 and 1935 respectively in the Cibas region of the Dominican Republic. All three were educated in the Dominican Republic, Minerva and Maria Teresa going on to achieve university degrees.

All three sisters and their husbands became involved in activities against the Trujillo regime. The Mirabal sisters were political activists and highly visible symbols of resistance to Trujillo’s dictatorship. As a result, the sisters and their families were constantly persecuted for their outspoken as well as clandestine activities against the State. Over the course of their political activity, the women and their husbands were repeatedly imprisoned at different stages. Minerva herself was imprisoned on four occasions. Despite Trujillo’s persecution, the sisters still continued to actively participate in political activities against the leadership. In January 1960, Patria took charge of a meeting that eventually established the Clandestine Movement of 14 June 1960 of which all the sisters participated. When this plot against the tyranny failed, the sisters and their comrades in the Clandestine Resistance Movement were persecuted throughout the country.

In early November 1960, Trujillo declared that his two problems were the Church and the Mirabal sisters. On 25 November 1960, the sisters were assassinated in an "accident" as they were being driven to visit their husbands who were in prison. The accident caused much public outcry, and shocked and enraged the nation. The brutal assassination of the Mirabal sisters was one of the events that helped propel the anti-Trujillo movement, and within a year, the Trujillo dictatorship came to an end.

The sisters, referred to as the "Inolvidables Mariposas", the "Unforgettable Butterflies" have become a symbol against victimization of women. They have become the symbol of both popular and feminist resistance. They have been commemorated in poems, songs and books. Their execution inspired a fictional account "In the Time of the Butterflies" on the young lives of the sisters written by Julia Alvarez. It describes their suffering and martyrdom in the last days of the Trujillo dictatorship. The memory of the Mirabal sisters and their struggle for freedom and respect for human rights for all has transformed them into symbols of dignity and inspiration. They are symbols against prejudice and stereotypes, and their lives raised the spirits of all those they encountered and later, after their death, not only those in the Dominican Republic but others around the world.[International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women cit.]

Questo è il  testo della risoluzione 54/134. Ecco alcuni fatti sulla violenza contro le donne, riassunti nel filmato più sotto, presenti sulla pagina delle Nazioni Unite  dedicata alla ricorrenza, insieme ad altri documenti:

Up to 70 per cent of women experience violence in their lifetime.

Between 500,000 to 2 million people are trafficked annually into situations including prostitution, forced labour, slavery or servitude, according to estimates. Women and girls account for about 80 per cent of the detected victims

It is estimated that more than 130 million girls and women alive today have undergone FGM/C, mainly in Africa and some Middle Eastern countries.

The cost of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceeds $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion is for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.

Fino al 70% delle donne di tutto il mondo ha subito, nell'arco della sua vita, una qualche forma di violenza. Tra  500mila e 2 milioni sono le persone oggetto di traffico di esseri umani o riduzione in schiavitù: l'80% sono donne. 

credits www.un.org