South Asian conference on VAW concludes with Kathmandu Declaration

March 16, Kathmandu: The two-day South Asian Regional Women Conference on “Resonating from South Asia to the World: Global Norms to Address Violence against Women and Girls” concluded on Wednesday with a six-point Kathmandu Declaration.

The delegates during the conference agreed on an immediate call for a new global legally binding framework on violence against diverse women and girls.

Concluding the conference Supreme Court Justice Sapana Pradhan Malla said the conference would be helpful to address new threats that had emerged with the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change.

Also, the delegates at the conference stressed the need for effective implementation of the framework.

The Declaration has stated that the new treaty will bridge normative, geographic, and enforcement gaps in the present system while achieving protection, prevention, punishment, and a paradigm shift in attitude towards violence against diverse women and girls.

Noted Indian writer and Gender Rights activist Meera Khanna said the treaty would create a strict and legally binding framework that would enable countries to undertake evidence-based interventions.

Speaking at the program, Chief Executive Officer at Every Woman Lisa Shannon said as Nepal carried a proud history of women’s rights, it was necessary that Nepal would take the lead of the new global framework.

The delegates through that declaration informed that the conference recognized the devastating impact of violence against diverse women and girls. The Conference has stressed the immense impact of Women’s Rights Violation and public health crisis is on women and girls.

The conference emphasised the alarming consequences of widespread violence have on every human development parameter. The Conference appreciated the initiation of legislative mechanisms and implementation strategies to address violence against diverse women and girls in South Asia.

It reiterated that South Asia had no regional framework on violence against women and girls unlike in Africa, America and Europe.

The declaration has prioritized violence prevention education, increase funding for survivor services such as shelters, hotlines and legal aid and provide a specific, metrics-based reporting framework and establish an international monitoring body.

The conference has also urged South Asian Countries’ governments to take leadership in organizing the fifth women’s world conference.