The United Nations has called on all arms of the State to cooperate to eliminate gender-based violence.

The call was made by UN Women country representative Ms Delphine Serumaga on the sidelines of a media launch of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence last week, that was held in collaboration with the Swedish Embassy.

“Zimbabweans have to come together and fight collective violence from family, the society and institutionalised violence by police officers who insensitively interrogate victims of violence who report to them,” she said.

Sweden’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ms Sofia Calltorp, said a free gender-based violence era was within reach and could only be realised if people bore in mind that ignoring the rights of women was ignoring the rights of 50 percent of the population, which could contribute equally to world economic growth.