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NAIROBI, Nov. 13-- There is need for governments to enact punitive legislation and invest in grassroots sensitization to eradicate violence against women and girls that is on the rise, international campaigners said on Wednesday. The campaigners told a high-level forum on ending gender-based violence at the ongoing International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Nairobi that robust interventions were urgent to end the harmful practice by 2030. Margaret Kobia, Kenya's cabinet secretary of gender and youth said that ending gender-based violence is a prerequisite for a stable, prosperous and inclusive world. "The urgency to end all forms of violence against women and girls has gained currency now as the vice mutate and threaten to reverse gains we have made in gender equality," said Kobia. She said that governments should leverage on affirmative action, education for the girl child, robust prosecution of offenders and awareness creation targeting cultural leaders in order to win the war against gender-based violence. Kenya is hosting the Nov. 12-14 global population summit that is discussing innovative strategies to achieve universal access to contraceptives among women of reproductive age alongside eradication of harmful practices like gender-based violence and female genital mutilation. Michelle Bachelet Jeria, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the empowerment of women through education, skills, employment and access to reproductive health services will revitalize efforts to end gender-based violence. | 
