Saturday, November 25 is the International Day of the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Perpetrators of violence against women, give up. Today is the day of surrender.

White ribbons will today fly across the globe to symbolize that every day men, men like you or your husbands, have taken a pledge to no longer stay silent when they see violence occurring. The men who choose to don a white ribbon on their lapel do so as a personal pledge not to commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and children.

Go you men. It is about time you found the testicles to stand up and say, “We cannot treat women and children like this.” Granted, some women perpetrate domestic violence against their spouses and many more women perpetrate violence against their children. However, the statistics overwhelmingly support that domestic violence is a gendered crime: a crime perpetrated by men against women and children.

To violence against women, Australia definitely says no. The power of White Ribbon Day has been harnessed by Australian men in an unprecedented act of responsibility, conciliation and empowerment for their own men’s movement. Whether it is our violent convict past, our violent atrocities against our Indigenous peoples or our brutal life of surviving the elements, violence against women and children in Australia has gone on for far too long and it has to stop.

Australia’s favorite daughter, actress Nicole Kidman, is UNIFEM’s Goodwill Ambassador. Her high profile and gentle nature has become the face of non-violent Australia. Her commitment to UNIFEM makes her my new heroine. Thanks Nic, you are a great Aussie woman.

Have a white day everyone: clothes, ribbons, white noise or white goods. May your thoughts today fly to ending violence against women and children. Surrender to your sense of right and wrong. It’s easy, always choose the white thing to do.