Today Is...International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

The United Nations 1993 Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women defines violence against women as 'any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life'.

The MeToo movement was an important step top bring powerful men to justice and bring awareness to violence against women but a 2018 analysis by the UN and World Health Organisation found some frightening statistics:

30% of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime
27% of women aged 15-49 years have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their partner
38% of all murders of women are committed by their partners
6% of women report having been sexually assaulted by someone other than their partner
10% of women in the EU have experienced cyber-harassment
45,000 women and girls worldwide (56% of the total) were killed by their partners or other family member
32% of women globally, 736 million, have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their life
26% of women aged 15 and older have been subjected to violence from their partner
16% of young women aged 15 to 24 experienced this violence in the past 12 months
Less than 40% of women who experience violence seek help of any sort
Less than 10% report physical/sexual violence to the police.
15 million adolescent girls worldwide, aged 15–19 years, have experienced forced sex or sexual acts
200 million women and girls aged 15–49 have undergone female genital mutilation.
82% of women parliamentarians globally have experienced some form of psychological violence from death, rape, assault, abduction threats
65% had been subjected to sexist remarks, primarily by male colleagues in parliament
73% of female journalists have experienced online violence
22% demale journalists had been attacked or abused offline
60% of victims of human trafficking are women or girls trafficked for sexual exploitation