One important aspect in the achievement of gender quality is the prevention of violence against women and the prosecution of those who commit abuses. The Obama administration is working to protect women inside and outside the United States and improve their ability to seek justice and empower themselves in their societies.

Speaking February 28 in Geneva at a U.N. Human Rights Council event on “Women’s Access to Justice,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Paula Schriefer said U.S. domestic efforts to reduce violence against women have had “a proven impact,” and the United States is expanding its efforts globally through the 2011 U.S. National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

“Women in the United States fought long and hard to achieve laws that protect women from discrimination based on gender, and we enjoy the benefits of a justice system that can enforce these laws,” Schriefer said.

In 1994, the U.S. Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act, which established the Office on Violence Against Women in the U.S. Department of Justice. Schriefer said that office has helped communities across the United States with financial and technical assistance as they developed programs, policies and practices “aimed at ending domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking, including legal assistance to victims, court improvement and training for law enforcement and courts.”

All of these have helped to increase women’s access to justice inside the United States and have had a significant impact on the level of violence, she said.

“Recent statistics show that between 1993 and 2010, the number of women killed by an intimate partner declined by 30 percent. And annual rates of domestic violence against women plummeted by two-thirds,” Schriefer said.

Through its own experiences in recognizing that gender equality is a human right, the United States issued its National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security to “empower women to act as equal partners in preventing conflict and building peace in countries threatened and affected by war, violence and insecurity,” she said.

The plan aims to build the capacity of women living in conflict areas to serve in government, the security sector and civil society; work with countries to develop laws and policies that promote women’s rights and meaningful participation; improve the ability of the United Nations to prevent and respond to conflict-related violence against women; and ensure that conflict early warning systems will include gender-specific data and respond to sexual and gender-based violence.

The National Action Plan demonstrates that U.S. efforts to ensure gender equality and equal access to justice “are not limited to domestic efforts,” Schriefer said.

“Focusing on protection, the United States intends to support the development of effective accountability and transitional justice mechanisms that address crimes committed against women and girls. This includes multicountry efforts to support women’s advocacy and capacity building against violent extremism,” she said.

In her remarks, Schriefer highlighted specific examples from Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Liberia, Jordan and Kenya, where she said the United States is “actively working to advance women’s access to justice and empowering women.”