By Paola Garcia Rey, Counsel, Inter-American Human Rights System Project, Human Rights Institute, Columbia Law School at 8:46pm
This is a summary of Ms. Garcia Rey’s remarks from a panel discussion hosted by the ACLU Women’s Rights Project and Human Rights Program in conjunction with the 55th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
An alarming number of women in the United States experience grievous violence, and our government has failed to respond effectively to this crisis. The statistics speak for themselves: domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to U.S. women between the ages of 15 and 44; an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year; and 1 in 4 American women are abused by their partners.
