Intimate partner and sexual violence against women
Fact sheet N°239
Updated November 2014
Key facts:
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Violence against women - particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence against women - are major public health problems and violations of women's human rights.
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Recent global prevalence figures indicate that 35% of women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
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On average, 30% of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical or sexual violence by their partner.
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Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner.
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Violence can result in physical, mental, sexual, reproductive health and other health problems, and may increase vulnerability to HIV.
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Risk factors for being a perpetrator include low education, exposure to child maltreatment or witnessing violence in the family, harmful use of alcohol, attitudes accepting of violence and gender inequality.
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Risk factors for being a victim of intimate partner and sexual violence include low education, witnessing violence between parents, exposure to abuse during childhood and attitudes accepting violence and gender inequality.
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In high-income settings, school-based programmes to prevent relationship violence among young people (or dating violence) are supported by some evidence of effectiveness.
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In low-income settings, other primary prevention strategies, such as microfinance combined with gender equality training and community-based initiatives that address gender inequality and communication and relationship skills, hold promise.
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Situations of conflict, post conflict and displacement may exacerbate existing violence and present additional forms of violence against women.
© 2013 Arturo Sanabria, Courtesy of Photoshare
ONLINE — Multi-stakeholder consultations about the new Global Financing Facility (GFF) are now underway and PMNCH is coordinating the process through a new interactive consultation hub. Partners are invited to log on, share their views and learn about this effort and how it will support an updated Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, to be developed in 2015 in conjunction with the new Sustainable Development Goals.
Извор: Светска здравствена организација – 20.11.2014
This issue of Gender & Development explores care from a gender perspective. Care is a social good; it not only sustains and reproduces society, but also underpins all development progress. Yet the vast majority of care work is done free, at home; and it is widely seen as a female responsibility. This gender division of labour has profound implications for women and girls – both in terms of their daily lives and options, and their status in society. Writers in this issue explore women’s experience of care work in different contexts from a feminist perspective, highlighting the impact that care work has for their lives, choices and wellbeing, and for the institutions of family, state and market – all of which lose out through unsustainable arrangements for care. Authors share innovative policy, advocacy and programme experience from different development organisations aiming to ensure care is shared more equitably. The goal is for care work to be divided fairly between the sexes, and between the household and other social institutions, including the state.
Извор: WUNRN – 20.11.2014
Celebrating 25 years of the Convention on Rights of the Child - November 20
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely accepted international human rights treaty in history. It sets out the rights held by every child up to 18 years old. Over the past 25 years, the CRC has been used to shape laws and systems to improve the lives of children around the world.
UN Convention on the rights of the child
UN Committee on the rights of the child
Извор: WUNRN – 19.11.2014
Sixteen years ago this month, a transgender woman named Rita Hester was brutally stabbed to death in her apartment in Allston, Massachusetts. Her death launched a global movement to remember and honor trans people who were murdered because of their identities. Since that tragic incident, November 20 has been known as Transgender Day of Remembrance.
The psychiatrists, judges, ministry officials, and other government representatives who make decisions about transgender people’s lives in Eastern Europe and Central Asia know little about this day’s significance. What they do know is how to create obstacles for trans people who are seeking to change the gender listed on their official documents—like passports or driver’s licenses—to reflect their true identities.
In Ukraine, for instance, in order for the government to recognize a trans person’s gender identity, the individual needs to stay in a psychiatric institution for up to 45 days. Then, only when a commission of forensic psychiatrists in Kiev have “confirmed” their diagnosis of “transsexualism” and the trans person has paid for invasive and sterilizing surgeries, will the commission give them permission to change their documents.
