The report, “What Counts? The state of funding for the prevention of gender-based violence against women and girls”, comes as the world kicks off the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence (GBV), from November 25 to December 10, under the global theme set by the UN Secretary-General’s UNiTE campaign, “UNITE! Invest to prevent violence against women and girls”.
As the world marks the halfway point to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the urgency to end violence against women and girls has never been greater.
UN Women’s Gender Snapshot 2023 report reveals that 245 million women and girls continue to face physical and or sexual violence from their intimate partners each year.
A staggering 86 per cent of women and girls live in countries without robust legal protections against violence, or in countries where data are not available.
Additionally, the impacts of economic crises, conflicts, and climate change have heightened the vulnerability of women and girls to violence.
“It is time to get serious and fund what we know works to stop violence against women and girls. Invest in reforming and implementing laws and multisectoral policies. Provide services to survivors. Scale up evidence-based prevention interventions” said UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous at the official commemoration event for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in New York.
With the will and contributions of all stakeholders and sectors, we can unlock financing, track budget allocations, and increase gender-responsive budgeting. We have the solutions and resources to end violence against women and girls in our lifetimes. It is our choice,” she added.
A strong and autonomous feminist movement is also a crucial part of the solution.
Women’s rights organisations play a pivotal role in preventing violence, advocating for policy change, and holding governments accountable.
However, as per the Action Coalition on GBV’s Accountability Report, they remain severely underfunded, and significant efforts are needed to increase financial support for women’s rights organizations working in this space.
Also, launched on Thursday, a new research brief with estimates on gender-related killings of women and girls, produced jointly by UNODC and UN Women, shows that globally, nearly 89,000 women and girls were killed intentionally in 2022, the highest yearly number recorded in the past two decades, indicating that the number of female homicides is not decreasing.
Most killings of women and girls are gender motivated. In 2022, 55 per cent of the intentional killings of women (around 48,800) were committed by intimate partners or other family members.
This means that, on average, more than 133 women or girls were killed every day by someone in their own family.
–Ajit Weekly News
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