It is the human right of women to be free from violence in all its forms, says UN Women’s Lakshmi Puri

Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, speaks on the sidelines of the World Assembly for Women at Tokyo

Written by Shalini Nair | Tokyo | Updated: November 27, 2017 5:51 pm

Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, Lakshmi Puri said the culture of impunity was being challenged very openly and perpetrators were being named and shamed and punished. (Source: Twitter)

For the first time, silence has been broken with the #MeToo campaign around the world. What do you think this will culminate into?

It’s really important that this breaking of silence is happening around the world. As we saw in the Nirbhaya case, there was a people’s movement, an uprising and an outrage. That’s what is happening in the United States now against misogyny and discrimination. A people’s movement is building up very strongly and asserting itself and that is in turn giving courage to women across societies to come forward against something they have accepted as part of their lives.