JAKARTA, Indonesia, March 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Breakthrough India's three-day Pan-Asia Summit 'Reframe' concluded with a dialogue and recommendations from intersectional feminists across the globe to end Gender-based Violence. The summit was held from March 2-4, with the aim to co-create a future agenda in the Asian context, to end Gender-based Violence.
Led by Sohini Bhattacharya, CEO, Breakthrough India, industry experts discussed the core problems acting against the prevention of Gender-based Violence in the region.
Ruby Kholifah, Director, Asian Muslim Action Network, Indonesia, said, "One of the biggest obstacles in the implementation of regulations for women is about the social support and people awareness because there are some obstacles in the community relating to religious interpretation around violence against women. Some use religion to protect the perpetrators by claiming that beating wives is for "education". In 2017, we realized, there needs to be a strong transformation in the way religious leaders are involved in the agenda of ending GBV. Religious leaders should first listen to the voices of the victims. Especially in Indonesia, Islamic religious texts should be interpreted in reference to supporting women's rights."
While national level advocacy is important to move national level commitments aligned to SDG goal 5, regional coalitions and partnerships play a central role to align efforts and resources at a regional level. Further, it enables strengthening the roll-out and implementation of a multi-sectoral response to urgently address gender-based violence with a particular focus on women and girls across this diverse region.
Another challenge faced by women's rights organizations is resourcing. As per Association for Women's Rights Development (AWID), despite new funding commitments made, women's rights organizations receive only 0.13% of the total Official Development Assistance and 0.4% of all gender-related aid.
Breakthrough has been working on violence against women and girls for over two decades by focusing on prevention by transforming norms and narratives. The summit shed more light on learnings, best practices, strategies and tools to address, prevent, and respond GBV across spaces including domestic, private, public, workspaces in both the online and on-ground spaces.
