Gender-based Violence

One in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence during her lifetime.[1] 137 women are murdered each day by a family member or intimate partner;[2] 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone genital mutilation;[3] and more than 650 million women were under the age of consent when they married.[4] Of 6.3 million victims of sex trafficking worldwide, nearly 80% are women and girls.[5]

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a human rights violation. It discriminates against people based on their gender and disproportionately affects women and girls. As defined in the Istanbul Convention, GBV includes all acts “that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” GBV is perpetrated along unequal power relations that are manifested through socially constructed gender roles. It is directed against both individuals and groups, with the aim of degrading and subordinating them. Women of color, migrant and refugee women, women with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ women are particularly affected by GBV, yet they are less likely to have access to counseling and care services.

GBV exists in all countries and across all socioeconomic groups. It has various manifestations: domestic and intimate partner violence, which can appear as physical, sexual, or psychological violence; sexual violence including rape, forced prostitution, and forced pregnancies; as well as violent social practices like female genital mutilation. GBV also includes psychological violence like coercive control, stalking, or hate speech and cyberbullying in the digital sphere. GBV in the context of war and conflict is also used as a weapon in order to systematically destroy communities and humiliate the enemy.

A World Bank Group report estimated the costs of intimate partner violence across a range of countries to be up to 3.7% of their GDP, which is about as much as what most governments spend on primary education.^[6] Addressing GBV not only helps women and girls, but also promotes society as a whole and the economy of every state.

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[1] World Health Organization, Global, Regional and National Prevalence Estimates for Intimate Partner Violence Against Women and Global and Regional Prevalence Estimates for Non-partner Sexual Violence Against Women, 2018 (Geneva, 2021).

[2] UNODC, Global Study on Homicide: Gender-Related Killing of Women and Girls 2018 (Vienna, 2018).

[3] UNICEF, Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Global Concern (New York, 2016).

[4] UNICEF, Child Marriage: Latest Trends and Future Prospects (New York, 2018).

[5] International Labour Organization, Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage, (Geneva, 2022).

[6] Jeni Klugman et al., Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity (Washington: World Bank, 2014).

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