Women- the endangered species

Nicole Kidman urged world leaders and ordinary people to join the global fight to end violence against women.

The actress, said the violence was probably the 'most widespread human rights violation of our time.'

The 40-year old Australian star became a good-will ambassador in January 2006 for the UN Development Fund for Women, known as UNIFEM.

Kidman urged people of all nations to add their names and demand 'that ending violence against women be made a top priority for governments everywhere'.

One in three women will encounter violence in someway, shape or form against them in their life-time ', Kidman told a newsconference at the UN headquarters. 'That's an extraordinaray statistic . Yet do we hear it?'.