Reese Witherspoon backs bracelet sales for women fund

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Sales of a bracelet will go towards a U.N. fund to combat violence against women under a plan announced on Tuesday by the United Nations, the Avon cosmetics company and movie star Reese Witherspoon.

Avon Products Inc., the world's biggest direct seller of cosmetics, has pledged to match the first $500,000 in sales of the bracelet to benefit the fund aimed at ending a problem activists say affects one woman in three worldwide.

Witherspoon showed off the "women's empowerment bracelet" at a U.N. news conference, saying its clasp in the shape of the infinity symbol -- a horizontal figure of eight -- represented "a future without limitations for all women."

Joanne Sandler, head of the U.N. women's agency UNIFEM, said the public-private partnership -- a model favored by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon -- would bring "badly needed resources" to the U.N. Trust Fund to End Violence against Women.

Describing violence against women as a "hidden pandemic," Sandler told the news conference that in the United States alone lost productivity and earnings due to violence by domestic partners cost almost $1.8 billion a year.

The bracelets will cost $3 and be sold by Avon's network of 5.4 million sales representatives around the world, primarily women who run home-based businesses.

Avon chief executive Andrea Jung said the money raised would help UNIFEM improve implementation around the world of laws and policies dealing with violence against women.

Past efforts have included grants to help India's legal system implement a new domestic violence law and to assist the Rwandan government to establish a special police unit to investigate cases of violence.