GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretary general Irwin LaRocque is urging regional countries as well as non-governmental organisations to host events in support of the activities marking the 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

In a statement ahead of the International day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Sunday, LaRocque said that he was encouraging the governments and other stakeholders to host the events with local, national, regional and global women’s movements, survivor advocates and women human rights defenders.

He said these activities should create opportunities for sharing personal stories to stimulate dialogue among activists, policy-makers and the public.

“During this 16-day campaign, people around the world, especially women, are mobilising to ensure that they can enjoy the full complement of their human rights. But women and girls cannot do it alone. Men and boys must become involved.

“We all have a shared responsibility in achieving gender equality which will allow our women and girls in our Caribbean region an opportunity to live their lives free of violence,” he said.

The region’s top public servant said that it is important to note that while violence is an extreme violation of women and girls human rights, it also incurs huge economic costs for women and families, as well as for communities and societies.

He said the 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in 2013, noted the economic and social harm caused by such violence and strongly urged all governments to collect, collate, analyze and disseminate reliable and comparable data and statistics on a regular basis, disaggregated by sex and age.

“Data is needed on all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls. There is also a need for multidisciplinary research and analysis on the structural and underlying causes of, and risk factors for violence, its types and prevalence, in order to inform the development and revision of laws.”

LaRocque said that for the first time, Caribbean countries are engaged in prevalence surveys on gender based violence.

He said these surveys are being conducted with the collaborative efforts of UN Women, the CARICOM Secretariat and several international partners.