United Nations Women Director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says it is disturbing that statistics around violence against women have not changed. She says governments have increased measures to protect women but that is still not enough.
“We are also thankful to the Secretary-General for the role he has played in raising his voice and highlighting the prevalence of violence against women in the world and that has elicited some response from member states. But again, we need to see real implementations and sustain interventions in response to the SG reports and hopefully, in response to this report, we will see more countries taking more decisive steps.”
A study on the prevalence of violence against women and girls, conducted in at least 158 countries, found that nearly one in three women worldwide is subjected to physical or sexual violence during her lifetime.
🆕 data from @WHO & partners shows that violence against women remains devastatingly pervasive.
Across their lifetime, 1 in 3 👧🧕👩 are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner: https://t.co/0MORAKoZrL pic.twitter.com/emxi41Hzcf
— UN Women (@UN_Women) March 9, 2021
The author of the study says the true figures are likely far higher than reported due to under-reporting of sexual abuse and the stigma that often falls on the victim instead of the perpetrator.
Claudia Garcia-Moreno says the violence also starts at a young age in most cases, with one in four adolescent girls aged 15-to-19 having been subjected to either physical or sexual violence in a relationship.
“6% of women and girls globally have been subjected to sexual violence by someone other than their husband or partner. The true prevalence of sexual violence is likely to be much higher. While we have seen more women disclosing thanks to movements like ‘ me too ‘ or ‘ stop the blame ‘ and others, the issue remains a high stigma and many still fear the blame and the repercussions if they speak out.”
UN releases a report on violence against women:
