According to an 8 March 2009 article by the United Nations (UN) News Centre, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon marked this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) by calling for an end to violence against women around the world. This year’s IWD theme is “Women and Men: United to End Violence Against Women.” The Secretary General said that the cost of violence against women and girls is not only the medical and employment costs borne by victims and their employers, but also the “incalculable” cost of “shattered lives and livelihoods,” because such violence negatively impacts victims’ communities. Mr. Ban Ki-moon also decried the “socially ingrained” behaviors that lead to violence against women and girls, saying that people must unite to show that “violence against women will not be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any circumstance.”
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Compiled from: UN News Centre, Cost of Violence against Women 'Beyond Calculation,' Warns UN Chief (8 March 2009).