EuropaWorld 24/11/2000 'Wear a White Ribbon on 25 November!' EU tells Prime Ministers

One woman in four is raped at some stage of her life and up to three-quarters of all women, depending on where they live, regularly have to suffer violence and beatings at home. These are the uncomfortable facts to be remembered on 25 November, the International Day against Violence against Women.

To break the traditional silence surrounding these crimes, European prime ministers and members of parliament are being invited to wear a white ribbon, symbolising their determination to draw the extent of violence against women to the public's attention.

Maj Britt Theorin, Chair of the European Parliament's Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities Committee, Nicole Péry, French Secretary of State for Gender Equality, and Anna Diamantopoulou, European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, are this week launching the 'White Ribbon Campaign' aimed at bringing the crime of violence against women into the open.

Canadian men started the first such campaign in 1991 as a reaction to the killing of 14 women students at the University of Montreal. A number of NGOs and other organisations have since taken up the cause. In Europe, the white ribbon motif is known in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Spain and Sweden but is little known elsewhere.

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