Washington: US President Barack Obama vowed Friday to fight sexual violence on college campuses, launching a campaign to banish the "quiet tolerance" of assault.
"An estimated one in five women has been sexually assaulted during her college years -- one in five. Of those assaults, only 12 percent are reported. And of those reported assaults, only a fraction of the offenders are punished," Obama said.
"It is on all of us to reject the quiet tolerance of sexual assault and to refuse to accept what`s unacceptable," he said, unveiling the campaign dubbed "It`s on us."
The White House created a special task force in January to better protect young women on US college campuses.
Obama, father of two daughters, aged 13 and 16, said women were not the only targets of assault and said the fight to protect victims is a collective responsibility.
"While these assaults overwhelmingly happen to women, we know that men are assaulted, too. Men get raped. They`re even less likely to talk about it," he said.
"This is not just the work of survivors. It`s not just the work of activists. It`s not just the work of college administrators," Obama added.
"We are going to organize campus by campus, city by city, state by state. The entire country is going to make sure that we understand what this is about and that we`re going to put a stop to it."