Gender-Based Violence

Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. It knows no social, economic or national boundaries.  

Gender-based violence undermines the health, security and autonomy of its victims, yet it remains shrouded 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. 

The issue of gender-based violence reaches every corner of the world. The numbers of women and girls affected by this problem are staggering. According to World Health Organization (WHO), data from 2013, 1 in every 3 women has been beaten, coerced into sex or abused in some other way - most often by someone she knows. 1 in 5 women is sexually abused as a child, according to a 2014 report. 

Gender-based violence is not only a violation of individual women's and girl's rights. The impunity enjoyed by perpetrators, and the fear generated by their actions, has an effect on all women and girls. It takes a toll on a global level, stunting the contributions women and girls can make to international development, peace and progress. 

 _{Source - United Nation Population Fund, Gender-Based Violence}