People around the world are commemorating the U. N.-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.<\/b>
\nMADRID \u2014 Thousands of people took to the streets of countries around the globe on Sunday, a day set aside by the United Nations to raise awareness of violence against women, to protest gender violence.
It was the beginning of 16-day campaign urging individuals and organizations to fight the kind violence that will affect more than a third of women globally during their lives, according to the United Nations.
Michelle Bachelet, the former president of Chile and the United Nations\u2019 high commissioner for human rights, said in a video on Twitter: \u201cI support the millions of women around the world who have dared to speak out against violence and harassment.\u201d
Using the hashtags #MeToo, #NiUnaMenos and #NousToutes, she urged women everywhere to keep telling their stories of violence and \u201cto demand and accountability reparation.\u201d
\u201cAll of us, women and men, must come together to end violence against women,\u201d she added.
In Madrid, demonstrators seeking to pressure the new Socialist government in Spain to address gender violence held signs reading, \u201cNo is No\u201d and \u201cNot one less,\u201d and chanted, \u201cWe\u2019re not all here; the murdered ones are missing.\u201d
After reaching Puerta del Sol, the central square of Madrid, they listened as the names of victims were read out. The government calculates that 45 women have been killed in Spain over the past year by their partner or former partner, but the organizers of the protest put the total at 89, including those killed by people outside their own personal circle.
The country has been roiled by recent court verdicts that women say play down the inherent violence in sexual assaults: On Friday, a court in Lleida, in northeastern Spain, cleared a man and his nephew of the more serious charge of sexual assault, the equivalent to rape in Spain, after attacking a woman they had met in a bar.
In a back alley, the men forced her to have sex without her consent, the court was told. They were sentenced to four and a half years for sexual abuse because they were deemed not to have used intimidation or violence, even though the woman pleaded for them to stop.
That case followed another gang rape case this year in which five men were cleared of the more serious charge of rape \u2014 which must involve violence or intimidation under Spanish law \u2014 after dragging a teenage woman into an alcove, assaulting her and filming the attack with their cellphones during the San Ferm\u00edn running of the bulls festival in Pamplona.
Because the victim said she had frozen in fear during the attack, the judges sentenced the men for \u201csexual abuse,\u201d describing her attitude as \u201cpassive or neutral,\u201d setting off protests in the streets and a call to revamp Spain\u2019s laws.
Women around the world began marching against gender violence in countries like Chile, Ecuador, France, Greece and Italy even before Sunday. Several world leaders took note of the campaign.
\u201cGender-based violence harms us all,\u201d Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said in a statement. \u201cIt affects families, schools, and workplaces \u2014 and holds back whole communities from reaching their full potential.\u201d
Antonio Tajani, the president of the European Parliament, put a red mark under his eye on Sunday while speaking at a crucial European Union summit meeting on Brexit.
\u201cIt is not normal that it\u2019s normal,\u201d Mr. Tajani said of gender violence, taking out a red crayon and drawing a line on his cheek \u2014 a symbol of domestic abuse.
Ireland\u2019s anti-rape laws were also in the cross hairs recently when the lawyer of a man accused of rape cited the underwear worn by a woman as a sign of her consent, igniting outrage across the country.
Amnesty International also released a study this past week showing that rape laws across Europe were \u201cdangerous and outdated,\u201d with many countries recognizing rape only when physical violence, threat or coercion is involved.
\u201cSex without consent is rape, full stop,\u201d Anna Blus, Amnesty International\u2019s researcher on Western Europe and women\u2019s rights, said in a statement. \u201cUntil governments bring their legislations in line with this simple fact, the perpetrators of rape will continue to get away with their crimes.\u201d
The United Nations has credited the #MeToo movement for spearheading awareness of entrenched gender violence in countries where the issue had struggled to gain prominence: such as in South Korea, where a politician, Ahn Hee-jung, was accused of and acquitted of sexual assault, one of the country\u2019s most prominent #MeToo cases; and in India, where the movement took off with accusations against men Bollywood and brought down a prominent minister.
The #MeToo movement have also taken hold in China, where a Chinese Buddhist leader was accused of sexually harassing at least two female disciples, and in India, where a Catholic bishop in the southern state of Kerala was arrested in September for allegedly raping a nun for years.
This past week, the Catholic Church\u2019s global organization of nuns for the first time publicly denounced the \u201cculture of silence and secrecy\u201d surrounding sexual abuse in the church and urged sisters who have been abused to report the crimes to police and their superiors, according to The Associated Press.
Raphael Minder reported from Madrid, and Yonette Joseph and Iliana Magra from London.<\/p>\n