India’s iconic India Gate and the Delhi Metro will join hundreds of monuments across the world that will be illuminated as part of a UN effort to galvanize support for global action to end violence against women and girls. India Gate will be illuminated in orange and messages of ending violence against women will be displayed on panel boards in two high-traffic lines of the Delhi Metro as part of the UN’s ‘Orange the World’ campaign that includes parades, soccer matches, school debates and the lighting up of hundreds of iconic monuments.

Violence against women and girls affects one in three worldwide. The call to action is part of the UN Secretary-General’s’ Unite to end violence against women’ campaign, led by UN Women, the UN’s agency for gender equality. The colour orange, which has come to symbolise a bright and optimistic future free from violence against women and girls, will help unify the large-scale social mobilisation.

It will be carried out during the civil society-driven ’16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence’, which will run from today commemorated as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women until Human Rights Day on December 10.  This year’s ‘Orange the World’ initiative will focus on the theme of preventing violence against women and girls, in the specific context of the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which includes targets on ending violence against women and girls.