Countering the pandemic of gender-based violence and maltreatment of young people: The Lancet Commission

Abstract

Violence against women and young people is persistent and perverse. Few if any health conditions or risk factors affect such large segments of the global population, and people living in poverty and vulnerable situations, including forced migration and humanitarian emergencies, are especially at risk. More than a third of women and girls—over 1 billion people—experience intimate partner violence or non-partner physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. 1 WHOGlobal status report on violence prevention. https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/status_report/2014/en/Date: 2014 Date accessed: November 25, 2019 Google Scholar , 2 London School of Hygiene & Tropical MedicineGender-based violence must be at the heart of global health agenda—expert comment. https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2018/gender-based-violence-must-be-heart-global-health-agenda-expert-commentDate: May 9, 2018 Date accessed: November 25, 2019 Google Scholar , 3 Devries KM Mak JYT García-Moreno C et al. The global prevalence of intimate partner violence against women. Science. 2013; 340: 1527-1528 Crossref PubMed Scopus (863) Google Scholar Nearly a quarter of all adults worldwide report physical abuse as children and the lifetime prevalence of childhood sexual abuse is unacceptably high for both sexes, although more frequent for girls (almost 20%) than boys (almost 10%). 1 WHOGlobal status report on violence prevention. https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/status_report/2014/en/Date: 2014 Date accessed: November 25, 2019 Google Scholar , 4 Watts C Zimmerman C Violence against women: global scope and magnitude. Lancet. 2002; 359: 1232-1237 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (719) Google Scholar , 5 García-Moreno C Zimmerman C Morris-Gehring A et al. Addressing violence against women: a call to action. Lancet. 2015; 385: 1685-1695 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (209) Google Scholar , 6 WHOChild maltreatment: key facts. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/child-maltreatmentDate: 2016 Date accessed: December 13, 2019 Google Scholar Country-specific data, differentiated by age and considering all gender identities, are required to monitor progress in reducing prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) yet are scarce except in high-income countries. 5 García-Moreno C Zimmerman C Morris-Gehring A et al. Addressing violence against women: a call to action. Lancet. 2015; 385: 1685-1695 Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (209) Google Scholar Preventing violence against women: beyond 16 days16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual, global civil society campaign calling for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls, ended on Dec 10. This year, the 30th anniversary of the event, carries particular poignancy. Violence against women and girls, already at high levels before COVID-19, has risen markedly during the pandemic and increased in severity, according to Oxfam. Government responses to the pandemic included lockdowns, suspension of social services, and economic hardship, many of which had the consequences of placing women at increased risk of violence, while in many countries, financial and logistical support for violence response services was withdrawn. Full-Text PDF