“Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence—yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned.” —United Nation’s Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon
Violence against women, often called gender-based violence, is violence towards women because of their gender. It constitutes a breach of a woman’s fundamental right to life, liberty, equality, and physical and mental integrity. Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. It is not confined to a specific culture, region, or country, or to particular groups of women within a society. The roots of violence against women lie in historically unequal power relations between men and women, and persistent discrimination against women.
Here are some startling statistics on GBV:
- Almost 50 percent of all sexual assaults worldwide are against girls 15 and younger.
- In 2002, 150 million girls under the age of 18 were victims of sexual violence.
- As many as one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way – most often by someone she knows.
- GBV undermines the health, dignity, security, and autonomy of its victims, yet remains hidden in a culture of silence. Victims of violence can suffer sexual and reproductive health consequences, including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, traumatic fistula, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, and even death.
Gender-based violence is widespread and pervasive and includes the following:
- Violent Crimes and Harmful Customs: Discriminatory violent crimes such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, and harmful customary practices such as female infanticide, female genital mutilation, child marriages, forced marriages, honor crimes, dowry murder, acid attacks, and breast ironing.
- Crimes Related to Violation of Human Rights: Sex trafficking in women and girls and forced prostitution (often referred to as modern day slavery) and violations of human rights in armed conflict, such as murder, systematic rape, and sexual slavery.
- Crimes Related to Reproduction: Violence related to women’s reproduction such as forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced sterilization, coercive use of contraceptives, and prenatal sex selection.
- Crimes of School Related Gender-Based Violence (SRGBV): Acts of sexual, physical or psychological violence inflicted on children in and around schools because of stereotypes and roles or norms attributed to or expected of them because of their sex or gendered identity.
The Sasha G.M. Shaikh Foundation supports organizations that work to prevent and respond to effects of gender-based violence through the following:
- Mitigating the root causes of violence
- Improving prevention and protection services
- Responding to the health, education, employment, and economic needs of those affected by gender-based violence
- To learn more about gender-based violence, please see the following resources:
United Nation’s Secretary-General’s Campaign – UNITE To End Violence Against Women
Violence Against Women and Millennial Goals