Commentary: Actions to end violence against women: A multi-sector approach

Overall, 35% of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner or non-partner sexual violence, although most is by an intimate partner (World Health Organization, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, & South African Medical Research Council, 2013). Many other forms of violence can affect women and girls, such as trafficking, female genital mutilation, early and forced marriage, murders in the name of honour or dowry, and sexual harassment and abuse by authority figures (e.g., teachers, police officers or employers) (United Nations General Assembly, 1993). Disabled women, women in prison and women in conflictaffected settings may be at additional risk for sexual and other forms of gender-based violence. Despite the prevalence, the tremendous impacts on women’s physical, sexual, reproductive and mental health, and the consequences for their own and their children’s health and development, many women do not report violence or seek help, so it remains hidden (Campbell, 2002; Plichta & Falik, 2001; Stökl et al., 2013; World Health Organization et al., 2013). Governments are obligated under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and have also made numerous commitments in intergovernmental forums, most recently at the 2013 session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, to develop and implement national policies, budgets and actions to reduce, eliminate and mitigate the consequences of violence against women (VAW) and girls (United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, 2013). Prevention is imperative and promising programmes exist that need to be tested and scaled up (Heise, 2011; WHO & London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2010). These include multi-sector interventions implemented under a coherent and systematic policy framework that empowers women socially and economically. All governments, NGOs and development partners together, need to: frame and implement laws and programmes to eliminate the economic and sociocultural factors that foster a culture of violence against women, including discriminatory family laws; support interventions to challenge social norms that support gender inequality and sanction or condone VAW, including comprehensive sexuality, human rights and gender equality education (Redner & Akinfaderin-Agarau, 2014); reduce childhood exposure to violence–a risk factor for