Violence against women and girls in the Sustainable Development Goals

permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dear Editor, On 25 September 2015, the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) unanimously adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 goals and 169 targets aiming to transform the world over the next 15 years. These goals are aimed to eliminate poverty, discrimination, abuse and preventable deaths, address environmental destruction, and usher in an era of development for all people, everywhere. 1 This agenda represents a welcome change to their forerunners, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It was acknowledged that the persistence of violence against women even after 15 years of MDGs has undermined the progress on other MDGs, given its crippling effect on women's ability to contribute to and benefit from broader developmental processes. 2 Though, most of the indicators of gender equality have also been improved after implementing MDGs, gender disparities still exist. 2 More than 30% of women worldwide have experienced either or both physical and sexual violence. 3 Hence, in SDGs, the prevention of violence against women and girls took an important place, compared to MDGs. Also this enables strong leadership and advocacy that are required for motivation and commitment of financial and other resources. The SDG-5 exclusively deals with achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls. Though it's the legacy of MDG-3, this SDG targeted to eliminate all forms of harmful practices and violence against women and girls and appropriate targets are set (Table 1). The SDG-16, which is meant for promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, included a goal to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all other forms of violence against and torture of children (Table 1). This goal targets reducing violence and related deaths among women covering deaths related to domestic violence and dowry, which are rampant in many developing countries. 4 These two SDGs through four targets (5.2, 5.3, 16.1 and 16.2) directly addressed violence against women and girls, and there are several targets among the other SDGs that were aimed directly or indirectly to prevent and reduce violence against women and girls (Table 1). Thus, SDGs gave enough importance and called for the reduction of " all forms of violence everywhere. " In addition, it identified different social and political enablers of gender equality that eventually reduce violence against women and girls. These enablers are addressed under …