The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (Resolution 54/134). The premise of the day is to raise awareness around the world that women are subjected to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
Historically, the date is based on
the date of the 1960 assassination of the three Mirabal sisters, political
activists in the Dominican Republic; the killings were ordered by Dominican
dictator Rafael Trujillo (1930–1961). In 1981, activists at the Latin
American and Caribbean Feminist Encuentros marked November 25 as a day to
combat and raise awareness against women more broadly; on February 7, 2000, the
date received its official United Nations (UN) resolution.
