Kidman addresses Congress on violence

Nicole Kidman speaks about violence against women by raising the issue in an address to the US Congress. Photo / AP

LOS ANGELES - Australian Oscar winner Nicole Kidman has given an emotional address at a congressional hearing in Washington DC, citing violence suffered by women in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Congo.

Kidman was part of a delegation testifying before the US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organisations, Human Rights and Oversight.

Congress is examining whether to support the International Violence Against Women Act.

During her speech Kidman gave the example of a woman in Pakistan scarred for life when her husband threw acid in her face, a girl in Afghanistan attacked for going to school and how as many as 90 per cent of women in some villages in Congo have been raped.

Kidman said it was estimated a third of all women in the world will be abused at one point in their life and called on Congress to offer substantial help, not "band aids".

"These champions need and deserve our support. Not with a box of band aids but with a comprehensive, well-funded approach that acknowledges that women's rights are human rights," Kidman, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women, said.

- AAP