Gender-based violence affects somewhere between 35 and 70% of women globally. More than one billion women lack protection from sexual violence from an intimate partner. An estimated 1.5 billion are without legal protection against sexual harassment at work. Thirty-seven countries still exempt perpetrators of rape from prosecution if they marry their victims.
But despite these alarming trends, accessing justice remains a challenge for survivors of gender-based violence across all regions of the world. Women and girls continue to face discriminatory legal and policy frameworks, unresponsive justice institutions and exclusion from political participation and economic opportunities. These barriers not only impede women from obtaining justice, but also enhance their vulnerability to all forms of violence.
IDLO is working around the world in countries including Afghanistan, Honduras, Kenya, Liberia, Mongolia and Myanmar to combat gender-based violence, focusing on legal and policy reform; capacity building of justice sector actors; strengthened links across the justice chain; support to specialized gender-based violence mechanisms; legal empowerment of victims and survivors; and improved access to services, including shelters.
Join us as we support the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence. We reaffirm our commitment to combat violence against women and girls through stories of our work and the voices of our colleagues worldwide.
Learn more about IDLO's work to combat gender-based violence
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On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and to mark the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, IDLO’s Director-General Irene Khan puts out a broad call to “stand up and speak out” against gender-based violence.
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Patriarchal patterns are deeply embedded in Afghan society. Women who seek assistance with resolving criminal matters often find the deck stacked in favor of the male perpetrator of the crime who, in most cases of gender-based violence in Afghanistan, is an intimate partner or family member...
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Meru County in Kenya became the first to adopt a county-level policy on sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Approved in April 2019 and launched on June 26, 2019, the Meru County Policy on SGBV aims to close the gap between provisions in national legislation and the lived experience of SGBV survivors...
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Every day, some 2.2 million people board buses in Yangon, the commercial capital of Myanmar. They travel across the city to commute to work, visit their families, see a doctor, run errands, go about their day. Buses are the most common form of mass public transit in Myanmar. But the experience can be fraught. Though data is scarce, sexual harassment is prevalent in Yangon and, as in cities all over the world, much of it takes place on public transport...
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In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women aged 15 – 19 years account for 74 percent of new HIV infections. Adolescent girls and young women are more vulnerable to HIV because they are often exposed to a range of gender and age-based biases, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), forced marriage and trafficking...
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On December 6, 2019 IDLO teamed up with the School of Law and Social Sciences of the University of Internal Affairs of Mongolia to organize a prize debating competition where more than 300 students came together to compete in teams presenting arguments around common misconceptions about gender-based violence (GBV)...
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