On a
cold New York evening, December 10, 2013, UN Women for Peace hosted
a discussion on the global need to end violence against women at
a private club on the Upper East Side.
The
event featured opening remarks by Mrs.
Ban Soon-taek, wife
of UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon and Patron of UN Women For Peace.
Mrs. Ban Soon-taek delivered a passionate plea for the
rights’ of women,
“violence against women is
a violation of human rights. It may be universal, but it is
not inevitable. It can be stopped.” The panel was moderated
by Fox News’ Uma Pemmaraj, which
included three remarkable women Cindy
Dyer (Vice
President of Human Rights at Vital Voices), Aldijana
Sisic (UN Trust
Fund to End Violence Against Women) and Manda
Zand Ervin (Alliance
of Iranian Women). Ms.
Ervin shocked to the room when she told the 90 guests that
the “Islamic Council had legalizing pedophilia that
afternoon. Men can now legally marry their adopted
daughters. Iran is now a gender-apartheid state.”
Guests
included: Carole
Acunto, Keiko Ono Aoki, Carl Adams, Paul Austin,
Jean-Christophe Bas, Geoffrey
Bradfield, Kendra
Bridelle, Giancarlo
Bruno, Sharon Bush, Eileen
Butler, Jessica DeMarco, Katie Dervishi, Wendy Diamond,
Daniella Diserens, Jean-Pierre Diserens, Paula Carlton
Evans, Nicola Hewitt, Deirdre Imus, Lucia Kaiser, Audrey
Latourette, Marcia Mintz, Sam Munshani, Valdona Neritani,
Nicole Rhodes, Gaynor Shaw, Linda Silverman, Steven Tanger,
Roric Tobin, Emmie Twombly, Melek Verbay, Carole Bellidora
Westfall, Julie Weindling, Barbara Winston, Jacqueline
Wolfson.
UN Women for Peace’s
chairwoman, Muna
Rihani al Nasser, announced the organization’s plans to
host their second annual March in March in celebration of
International Women’s
Day, which will be at the United Nations
Headquarters on Friday March 7, 2014.
UN Women for Peace will
host over 500 attendees at a private luncheon and public
march and rally to raise further awareness to end violence
against women.
Luncheon
guests will join hundreds of supporters inside the United Nations
Headquarters’ Gates and marching through the UN Park
to Dag Hammarskjold Park.
Last
year celebrities that attended the march and rally included Christy
Turlington Burns, Nana Meriwether (Miss
USA 2012), Monique
Coleman, Alexandra Richards, Kelly Rutherford andSusan
Sarandon.
UN Dignitaries
attended included H.E. Mrs.
Ban Soon –taek (wife
of UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon), Muna
Rihani Al-Nasser (Chairman, UN Women for Peace and
wife of Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser), Lakshmi
Puri (Deputy
Executive Director, of UN Women),
& H.E.
Ms. Rosemary A. DeCarlo (US
Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations) and
many other ambassadors and their wives.
A
special message from Malala
Yousafzai was read
by Susan Sarandon. The video of her message was broadcasted
nationally.
UN Women for Peace,
founded in 2008, under the patronage of H.E.
Mrs. Ban Soon-taek, wife of UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki- moon, aims at promoting and advancing the goals of UN
agencies whose missions are to provide opportunities for women through
social, cultural, educational and empowerment programs while
partaking in a global peace building
process.
UN Women for Peace is
focused on supporting and funding UN humanitarian
programs for women in
developing countries and countries in conflict. Since its
inception, UN Women for Peace
has sponsored scholarships to benefit underprivileged women to
study at the University for Peace.
From
2012, UN Women for Peace is
proud to support the UN Women Trust
Fund to End Violence against Women.
The Trust Fund, established by the UN General
Assembly in 1996, assists efforts to prevent violence
against women and
girls, provides services to those affected by violence and
strengthens the implementation of laws and policies on
violence against women and
girls. The Trust Fund is particularly concerned with ending
violence against women in
countries of conflict, post-conflict and transitional set-
tings. The Trust Fund also invests, through its partners, in
long-term solutions for a world free of violence. UN Women for Peace’s
contributions to the Trust Fund directly fund these efforts.
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