More needs to be done to end violence against women and girls and to protect their rights and amplify their voices

Hardly a day goes by without a news story on some violation of women's rights. In recent months, appalling incidents of violence against women and girls, from Delhi to Johannesburg to Cleveland, have sparked public outrage and demands to tackle these horrific abuses.

In Bangladesh and Cambodia, the shocking loss of garment factory workers' lives, many of them women, sparked global debate on how to secure safe and decent jobs in our globalized economy. In Europe, the disproportionate impact on women of austerity cuts and the use of quotas to get more women on corporate boards continue to make headlines.