"Eliminating violence against women and girls requires all of us—governments, the private sector, civil society, and faith-based organizations—to take action," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Friday.
He stressed that to help bring attention to this global challenge, the United States was "proud to observe the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25 and the accompanying 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence."
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The secretary's of states comments come of the verge of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which is marked on November 25 — the day was designated by the UN General Assembly.
The UN defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."