ACT to End Violence against Women

• The lack of a common definition of technology-enabled violence against women and girls affects the lack of globally comparable data, but available data collected at national and regional levels confirm a high incidence.
• One in 10 women in the European Union have experienced cyberbullying since the age of 15, which includes receiving unwanted, sexually explicit or offensive emails or SMS messages, or inappropriate and offensive contacts on social media.
• In the Arab States, a regional study found that 60% of female Internet users in the region had been exposed to online violence in the previous year.
• In Uganda in 2021, nearly half of women (49%) reported that they had been harassed online at some point in their lives.

• According to a survey conducted in 2016 by the Korean National Human Rights Commission, 85% of women experienced hate speech online.

• In 2022, around 48,800 women and girls will die at the hands of their partners or other family members around the world. This means that, on average, more than five women or girls are killed every hour by someone in their own family.

• While 55% of homicides of women are committed by their partners or other family members, only 12% of homicides of men occur in the private sphere.

• It is estimated that, worldwide, 736 million women – almost one in three – have been victims of physical or sexual violence by their partner, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once. in their life (30% of women aged 15 or older). These data do not include sexual harassment. Rates of depression, anxiety disorders, unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV are higher among women who have experienced violence than among those who have not, as are many other health problems that can occur. endure once the violence has ceased.
• Most acts of violence against women are perpetrated by their current or former husbands or partners. More than 640 million women aged 15 or older (26% of the total) have been subjected to violence by their partner.

• Of those who have been in a relationship, almost one in four adolescents aged 15 to 19 (24%) have suffered physical or sexual violence from their spouse or partner. 16% of young women between 15 and 24 years old experienced this type of violence in the last 12 months.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified violence against women and girls and exposed and exacerbated deep structural inequalities. Furthermore, it has reversed decades of progress in women's participation in the labor market, increased the number of women living in extreme poverty, and increased the burden of unpaid domestic and care work, all of which exacerbate the factors risk factors and drivers of violence against women and girls.
• In 2021, since the pandemic began, 45% of women reported that they or a woman or girl they knew had suffered some form of violence. Seven out of 10 women say that physical or verbal abuse by their partner is becoming more frequent and 6 out of 10 believe that sexual harassment in public spaces has worsened.

Less than 40% of women who experience violence seek any type of help. In most countries for which data is available on this issue, it is found that, among women who seek help, the majority turn to family and friends. Very few turn to formal institutions, such as the police or health services. Less than 10% of those seeking help file a report with the police.

• At least 162 countries have passed laws on domestic violence, and 147 have legislation on sexual harassment in the workplace. However, in countries where such laws exist, this does not mean that they always comply with international standards and recommendations, nor that they are applied and enforced.
• In 2022, the Republic of the Congo and Côte d'Ivoire enacted laws to protect women from various forms of domestic violence; Additionally, the Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Jamaica enacted laws on sexual harassment in the workplace, including criminal penalties and civil remedies.

A regional analysis of Women's Health Surveys conducted between 2016 and 2019 in five Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) – Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago – revealed that women between 15 and 64 years who had ever had a partner, who were in a relationship with men who exhibited attitudes and behaviors that reinforced the dominant position of men over women and perpetuated gender inequality, were more likely to have experienced intimate partner violence over the course of their lives. his life and suffering from it today. Behaviors aimed at controlling women's bodies, autonomy, and contact with other people are also strongly correlated with an increased risk of intimate partner violence.

• Violence against women can entail significant costs for the State, victims/survivors and communities. These costs are direct and indirect, tangible and intangible. For example, the salary costs of people who work in shelters are tangible direct costs. The costs are borne by everyone: by each victim, by the aggressors, by the Government and by society in general.
• In Viet Nam, direct expenses and lost income account for almost 1.41% of the gross domestic product (GDP). But even more important is the fact that the results of the regression to estimate the loss of productivity due to violence indicate that women who suffer violence earn 35% less than those who do not suffer abuse, which points to another important drain. for the national economy.
• In Egypt, around 500,000 days of work are lost each year due to marital violence, and the health sector costs more than US$14 million to care for just a quarter (600,000) of survivors.
• In Morocco, the total cost of physical or sexual violence against women was estimated at 2.85 billion dirhams (about US$308 million) per year.
• In 2021, the cost of gender-based violence at the European Union level was estimated at around €366 billion annually. Violence against women represents 79% of this cost (289 billion euros).

• Worldwide, 6% of women report having been victims of sexual violence by someone other than their husband or partner. However, the current incidence of non-partner sexual violence is likely to be much higher, taking into account the stigma associated with this form of violence.
• Fifteen million adolescent girls ages 15 to 19 have experienced forced sexual relations around the world. In the vast majority of countries, adolescent girls are the group most at risk of being forced to have sexual relations (or other types of sexual acts) by their current or former husband, partner or boyfriend. According to data available for 30 countries, only 1% of them have ever asked for professional help.

In 2020, for every 10 victims of human trafficking detected in the world, about four were adult women and about two were girls. The majority of detected victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation (91%) are women. An analysis of court cases shows that female victims are subjected to physical or extreme violence by traffickers at a rate three times higher than that of men.

• Over the past decade, the global rate of child marriage has failed, and the global proportion of young women aged 20 to 24 who were married before turning 18 fell from nearly one in four in 2010 to almost one in five (19%) in 2022 However, the profound effects of the pandemic threaten these gains, with up to 10 million more girls at risk of child marriage in the next decade due to the pandemic.
• Gender violence in schools is a very important obstacle to universal schooling and girls' right to education. Worldwide, one in three students between the ages of 11 and 15 experienced bullying at school at least once in the previous month. Girls and boys have the same risk of being bullied at school.

• While boys are more likely to suffer physical bullying than girls, girls are more likely to suffer psychological bullying and report more frequently than boys that they are made fun of because of the appearance of their face or body.

• At least 200 million women and girls aged 15 to 49 have been subjected to female genital mutilation in the 31 countries where this practice is concentrated.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, one in four women and girls has undergone female genital mutilation. However, levels vary considerably from country to country.
• There are still countries where female genital mutilation is almost universal, where at least 9 in 10 girls and women between 15 and 49 years of age have undergone cutting, while in Cameroon and Uganda it affects no more than 1% of girls and women.

• In five regions, 82% of female parliamentarians reported having suffered some type of psychological violence during their mandate. This included comments, gestures and images of a sexist or humiliating sexual nature, as well as threats and moral harassment at work. Women cited social media as the main channel through which this type of violence is carried out, and almost half (44%) reported having received threats of death, rape, assault or kidnapping against them or their families. 65% had been subjected to sexist comments, mainly from male colleagues in parliament.
• According to a global survey, 73% of female journalists have experienced online violence. 20% reported having been attacked or abused offline in relation to the online violence they had experienced. The topic most frequently associated with the intensification of attacks was gender (49%), followed by politics and elections (44%) and human rights and social policy (31%).