The spotlight today is on family violence.

Annual White Ribbon Day events are taking place around the country to raise awareness of men’s violence towards women.

The theme of this year's campaign is 'Respectful Relationships' - in short, say yes to respectful relationships and no to violence towards women. 

Over 3,500 convictions are recorded against men each year for assaults on women, but only 20 percent of abuse cases are reported.

On average, 14 women a year are killed by their partners or ex-partners.

Canterbury Police District Commander John Price said one of the key things New Zealanders can do to change these statistics is to get men saying violence is not okay.

"Unfortunately it's the males who are often the perpetrators in family violence and we often think those children that observe that family violence that becomes their learnt and observed behaviour," Price said.

"It's about people recognising the importance of family violence and how we can prevent and how we can do some key interventions around that."

Price is encouraging Cantabrians to gather at Cathedral Square at 12.30pm to take a unified stand against violence.

“The BBQ will be fired up in the square so you can grab a burger and find out what you can do to help stop violence in our communities."