Launch of the 2nd season of "Love and Violence" theater play

Welcome to the UN Eco House and thank you for joining us in yet another partnership against gender-based violence.

And why is this particular partnership important?

As you all know, gender equality and elimination of violence against women and girls lie at the very heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the greatest push towards better world in human history. It was adopted in 2015, when all 193 UN member countries committed to work hard on fulfilling that vision of better world based on 17 Sustainable Development Goals. As you can see over there, Goal number five strives for equal life of women and men.

Accomplishing all 17 SDGs is, without doubt, extremely ambitious plan, requiring yet unseen efforts from many sides. It’s the development agenda of UN member countries, but the governments cannot fulfil SDGs alone. We at the UN cannot fulfil them alone. No one can.

So how to achieve such a complex vision of better world? A world in which, among other things, no woman or girl will be a victim of violence.

The formula is – partnership.

Only through partnerships can any of 17 Sustainable Development Goals be fulfilled. And that is why tonight’s event is so important. Because what you are witnessing tonight is exactly that formula – a Partnership for Development.

Our partners from the company AVON clearly recognized the value of this initiative and stepped up to help bringing this powerful theatre play to over 2,000 high school students in the next couple of months. The theatre play, as you’ve heard, is designed to educate adolescents and to influence their attitudes towards violence against women.

I believe it’s not a coincidence that AVON joined this initiative. We in the UN see this as a natural alliance, since this is a company which is already very active in fighting against gender-based violence, both globally and in Montenegro. It’s a company for women, but it does not help them only to enhance their looks and confidence, but also raises awareness on health and violence. Through their programme Say NO to Violence, AVON goes behind the make-up and addresses the root causes. Behind the make-up - there is every third women that experienced violence, behind the make-up - there is 20% of gender pay gap, and so one.

But it’s not only AVON who I’d like to thank.

My sincere gratitude goes also to other partners who gathered to create the play together with us back in 2016 – Ministry of Education, NGO Women’s Rights Centre, and of course – the director Petar Pejaković and his drama studio “Prazan prostor” whose enthusiasm and professionalism materialised the play you are about to see soon.

As you can see, a broad partnership is needed to properly address complex changes towards better world. Tonight, together with our partners, we fight to end gender-based violence.

Thank you.