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Violence Against Women in Urban Areas |
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Although women’s contribution in today’s societies is essential and indisputable, nowhere is their status on a par with men’s. Women are a vulnerable group in all areas. With respect to violence, the evidence is revealing and irrevocable: not only are women particularly affected by many forms of violence, but most often these happen inside what should be the most secure of environments; their own homes. As the United Nations Development Programme’s annual Human Development Report (1995) commented: “In no society are women secure or treated as equal to men. Personal insecurity shadows them from cradle to grave… From childhood through adulthood, they are abused because of their gender”.
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UN-HABITAT and Youth |
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According to UN-HABITAT’s State of the World’s Cities Report 2006/7, the year 2007 will mark a turning point in human history - the urban population will for the first time equal the world’s rural population and the number of slum dwellers in the world cross the one billion mark.
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Facts on Youth |
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In cities of the developed world, more jobs are being created in the financial sector and in informal management as a result of globalization, while in the developing world, trends point toward an increasing “informalization” of the urban economy, as the formal sector fails to provide adequate employment opportunities for the number of young people and adults seeking work.
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Expert Group Meeting On Gender-Friendly Sustainable Cities in Asia and the Pacific: Rebuilding Communities Affected by Disaster and Conflict |
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Gender mainstreaming is a crucial aspect of good urban governance, as we work together towards making the international community peaceful, equitable and stable. It is quite certain that gender mainstreaming has been substantially improved, compared to 30 years ago, though it has not yet advanced to the point of creating balanced societies.
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Women's safety audits for a safer urban design: Results of the pilot audit (25 August 2007) |
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Feelings of insecurity and fear of crime and violence are highest in large cities. Urban design and planning do not create violence or other forms of assault, but they do create an environment that offers greater or lesser opportunities for violence. Making public spaces physically safer is one way to reduce the opportunities for assaults and the fear of crime.
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The Urban Penalty: The Poor Die Young |
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The five illnesses that cause more than half of the deaths amongst children are pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria,
measles and HIV/AIDS. Studies indicate that the prevalence of these killer diseases in urban slums is due to bad
living conditions rather than income levels. For instance, municipal supplies of safe drinking water rarely penetrate
slums. It is common for pit latrines to be shared by thousands of people.
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Urban Features: Children, Slums' First Casualties |
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The average age of the developing world’s population is 16 years compared to a global average of 28 years. Nearly half the global population was born less than a quarter century ago. With 1.2 billion people under 15, it can be said that the world belongs to young people. But for the millions of youth in slums, the present as well as the future is grim.
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Resolution of the International Youth-led Development Platform |
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The gathering of the international youth organizations and groups during the process of the international youth and crime prevention summit has resolved to establish the International Youth-led Development Platform under the auspices of Baobabconnections.
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Violence Against Women in Urban Areas, by Soraya Smaoun, UMP Working Paper Series 17, April 2000 - co-sponsored by SC and UMP (English: part 1)
UN-HABITAT and Youth