Eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) takes many different forms. It is a universal problem on a shocking scale: No region, country or social group is free from it. In adopting the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action in 1993, and through subsequent intergovernmental agreements, governments have acknowledged that VAWG is “a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women … [it] is one of the crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position”. The strength of a feminist and human rights approach—clearly articulated in the General Recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW)—is that it recognizes VAWG as a systematic form of discrimination against women rather than a series of unfortunate individual incidents or pathologies. Recognition of the systemic and structural nature of VAWG has gone hand in hand with defining state obligations to prevent and respond to it.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Gender Equality

Reduced Inequalities