When Sexual Violence Doesn’t Make Headlines

News of violence and injustice against women consumes the headlines every day. "Liberian women battle against ‘sex for grades’ at universities." "Delhi gang rape victim’s tragic death transforms her family’s life." Stories about ". . . the plague of violence against women."

Even amidst this steady stream of astonishing wrongs, I think about every woman and girl facing violence and injustice quietly and without notice. Too many remain invisible.

Global Health Starts With Women

This week, academic leaders from around the world are coming together for the 4th annual global health conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. Nearly 1,400 members of the academic community (including some 500 students) from 751 institutions in 56 countries seek to identify a multi-sector, multi-disciplinary, interprofessional approach to improving global health.

An important aspect of the conversations is that any approach to global health must start with women and girls. Taking care of women is taking care of the family which is taking care of the community which is taking care of society.

In any dialogue about social welfare and development, there is global recognition of this centrality of women. The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals aim to improve the lives of people around the world and ensure their basic human rights, particularly women’s issues, including poverty, education, maternal and infant mortality rates, and infections. The formation of UN Women and the appointment of Melanne Verveer as the U.S. ambassador for global women’s issues by President Barack Obama are indications of recognition of the vital role of healthy and educated women.

Progress and Need

But, as Ambassador Verveer wrote, “. . . we have indeed seen progress in protecting the human rights of women. . . . [but] there is no getting around the fact that progress is fragile in many places and barely measurable in others.”

Similarly, President Obama’s recent reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act is an important marker both of our progress and of the continuing, deeply rooted need for attention to the health of women and girls.

As we come together this week, my partners in the Consortium of Universities for Global Health will:

• Consider novel ways to make academic institutions transforming forces in global health, expanding our moral commitment to translate knowledge

• Assemble best practices from different parts of the world. Universities are not just exporters of innovation, we are importers too.

• Share a united vision of global health, one of equity and justice, the elimination of violence, the courage to tackle world problems, and truly measurable impact.

Those are headlines I would like to see.