International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women 2020

Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. 

Global estimates published by WHO indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner and as many as 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners. Yet to date, only two out of three countries have outlawed domestic violence, while 37 countries worldwide still exempt rape perpetrators from prosecution if they are married to or eventually marry the victim. Furthermore, 49 countries currently have no laws protecting women from domestic violence.

Women's rights activists have observed November 25th as a day against gender-based violence since 1981. This date was selected to honour the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler, Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961). November 25th also marks the beginning of 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence which end on December 10th, Human Rights Day. This annual campaign is used by individuals and organisations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.

To mark this event, Elsevier presents a curated, open access collection of 52 journal articles and book chapters to highlight the urgent need to end violence against women and girls.

 

 

 

Gender and parliamentary representation in India: The case of violence against women and children

Elsevier, Women's Studies International Forum, Volume 82, September - October 2020
To better understand how gender impacts parliamentary representation, we analysed representative claims made by parliamentarians in India, the world's largest democracy. Applying critical frame analysis to plenary debates in the Indian Rajya Sabha, we examined four parliamentary bills addressing violence against women and children under four successive governments between 1999 and 2019. Testing six hypotheses concerning who represents and how, our study found women legislators more active in speaking on behalf of women and children than male legislators.
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SDG:

Goal 5: Gender equality; Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Tags:

Access to justice; Human rights; Gender equality and women's empowerment; Rule of Law, Asia

Security from above and below: A critical ethnography of the health response to violence against women in Timor-Leste

Elsevier, Social Science and Medicine, Volume 260, September 2020
International advocacy and evidence have been critical for shifting the pervasive issue of violence against women onto the health agenda. Guidelines and training packages, however, can be underpinned by Western principles of responding to individual survivors of violence and availability of specialist referral services, which may not be available in many countries.
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SDG:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being; Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Human rights; Gender equality and women's empowerment; Health and population, Asia

‘It's breaking quite big social taboos’ violence against women and girls and self-defense training in Nepal

Elsevier, Women's Studies International Forum, Volume 64, September 2017
Given the increased vulnerability to, and rise in reports of, sexual violence in post-disaster situations this article seeks to explore the role of self-defense programmes as a response to addressing violence against women and girls. It draws on the authors’ experience of post-earthquake Nepal in 2015. We argue that self-defense training can play a crucial role in challenging normative gender roles, raising confidence and self-esteem in girls and women during and post disaster, and call for further research to take place at the local level to explore this important issue further.
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SDG:

Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Human rights; Gender equality and women's empowerment, Asia

Intimate partner violence against women and the Nordic paradox

Elsevier, Social Science and Medicine, Volume 157, May 01, 2016
Nordic countries are the most gender equal countries in the world, but at the same time they have disproportionally high prevalence rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. High prevalence of IPV against women, and high levels of gender equality would appear contradictory, but these apparently opposite statements appear to be true in Nordic countries, producing what could be called the 'Nordic paradox'. Despite this paradox being one of the most puzzling issues in the field, this is a research question rarely asked, and one that remains unanswered.
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SDG:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being; Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Human rights; Gender equality and women's empowerment, Europe

Men's violence against women and men are inter-related: Recommendations for simultaneous intervention

Elsevier, Social Science and Medicine, Volume 146, December 01, 2015
Men are more likely than women to perpetrate nearly all types of interpersonal violence (e.g. intimate partner violence, murder, assault, rape). While public health programs target prevention efforts for each type of violence, there are rarely efforts that approach the prevention of violence holistically and attempt to tackle its common root causes. Drawing upon theories that explain the drivers of violence, we examine how gender norms, including norms and social constructions of masculinity, are at the root of most physical violence perpetration by men against women and against other men.
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SDG:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being; Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Human rights; Gender equality and women's empowerment, Global

Risk factors for self-harm in prison: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Elsevier, The Lancet Psychiatry, Volume 7, August 2020
Background: Self-harm is a leading cause of morbidity in prisoners. Although a wide range of risk factors for self-harm in prisoners has been identified, the strength and consistency of effect sizes is uncertain. We aimed to synthesise evidence and assess the risk factors associated with self-harm inside prison.
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SDG:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being; Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Gender equality and women's empowerment; Human rights; Health and wellbeing, Global

Chinese trends in adolescent marriage and fertility between 1990 and 2015: a systematic synthesis of national and subnational population data

Elsevier, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 8, July 2020
Background: Early marriage and fertility are major social determinants of health and wellbeing. Rapid shifts in the past three decades, including a rise in sexual activity in unmarried adolescents, a large population of young migrant workers, and a high proportion of males relative to females, have the potential to alter patterns of reproductive health in Chinese adolescents and young women. We aimed to establish long-term trends of marriage and fertility for girls and women aged 15–24 years in China.
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SDG:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being; Goal 4: Quality education; Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Gender equality and women's empowerment; Education, Asia

Psychological interventions for common mental disorders in women experiencing intimate partner violence in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Elsevier, The Lancet Psychiatry, Volume 7, February 2020
Background: Evidence on the effectiveness of psychological interventions for women with common mental disorders (CMDs) who also experience intimate partner violence is scarce. We aimed to test our hypothesis that exposure to intimate partner violence would reduce intervention effectiveness for CMDs in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).
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SDG:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being; Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Gender equality and women's empowerment, Global

An online healthy relationship tool and safety decision aid for women experiencing intimate partner violence (I-DECIDE): a randomised controlled trial

Elsevier, The Lancet Public Health, Volume 4, June 2019
Background: Evidence for online interventions to help women experiencing intimate partner violence is scarce. We assessed whether an online interactive healthy relationship tool and safety decision aid (I-DECIDE) would increase women's self-efficacy and improve depressive symptoms compared with an intimate partner violence information website. Methods: In this two-group pragmatic randomised controlled trial, we enrolled women who had screened positive for any form of intimate partner violence or fear of a partner in the 6 months before recruitment.
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SDG:

Goal 5: Gender equality

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Gender equality and women's empowerment, Oceania

Occupational health outcomes among international migrant workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Elsevier, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 7, July 2019
Background: Globally, there are more than 150 million international migrant workers—individuals who are employed outside of their country of origin—comprising the largest international migrant group. A substantial number of migrants work in hazardous and exploitative environments, where they might be at considerable risk of injury and ill health. However, little data on occupational health outcomes of migrant workers exist, with which to inform global policy making and delivery of health services.
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SDG:

Goal 3: Good health and well-being; Goal 5: Gender equality; Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth

Tags:

Health and wellbeing; Employment decent work for all and social protection; Human rights, Global

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