#16 Days of Activism

16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children – 25 November – 10 December 2021

#16 DAYS Key Messages

DEFINITIONS

• The UN 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.  
• According to UNHCR, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) refers to any act that is perpetrated against a person’s will and is based on gender norms and unequal power relationships including physical, emotional or psychological and sexual violence, and denial of resources or access to services.

RECENT DATA

• Global estimates published this year 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. According to the recent SG’s report on the progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, this number alarmingly remains unchanged for the past decade.
• Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (27%) of women aged 15-49 years who have been in a relationship report that they have been subjected to some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV)

In order to ensure the elimination of sexual and gender-based violence and achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, IPPF calls on governments to:

• Respect, protect and fulfill their human rights obligations to gender equality and to a life free of violence for all, including women, adolescents and girls;
• Develop and/or review comprehensive laws to address SGBV through the involvement of education, media, social and health services, justice and finance departments, and more importantly victims and survivors themselves;
• Ensure that their legislations and policies include a comprehensive definition of all forms of sexual gender-based violence which includes different forms and situations of violence such as intimate partner violence (IPV), marital rape, sexual harassment, and harmful practices such as child, early forced marriage and FGM;
• End impunity of perpetrators of SGBV and create adequate sectoral regulation and protocols, agile and effective intersectoral coordination mechanisms and to designate an adequate budget to implement those policies;
• Increase funding for SGBV prevention, mitigation and response, and adapt funding mechanisms to different contexts and circumstances and increase the availability of coordinated, multi-sectoral services for women and girls who are survivors of violence;
• Prioritize reaching the most marginalised populations, implementing multi-sectoral policies for SGBV prevention, mitigation and response at all levels of society, including adolescent girls, sex workers, undocumented migrants, gender non-conforming, indigenous, disabled people, among others.
• Condemn all acts of violence and discrimination against women and girls and women human rights defenders (WHRDs) who face specific risks and challenges, driven by deep-rooted discrimination against women and stereotypes related to gender and sexuality.
• Recognize civil society as strategic partners in the implementation of their commitments, while ensuring their meaningful participation and contribution in different fora, including of women human rights defenders, feminist groups, youth-led organizations including in humanitarian contexts.

Sexual and Reproductive Health services and links to SGBV

Sexual and reproductive health interventions are important in terms of preventing, responding to and eliminating all forms of sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls. Compounding the broader health and social impacts of violence against women, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a significant threat to women’s reproductive health, exposing women and girls to reproductive coercion, contributing to women’s morbidity and mortality, unplanned and high-risk pregnancies and unsafe abortion. Violence also increases women’s vulnerability to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections through direct and indirect pathways. These include the inability to negotiate condom use and/or intercourse, and a decrease in health seeking behaviours including testing and treatment.

As various studies and research concluded, the SGBV cases have vastly escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating the so-called ‘hidden pandemic’. However, even before many women and girls already lacked access to the most basic free essential services for their safety, protection and recovery, such as emergency helplines, police and justice sector response, sexual and reproductive health care, safe accommodation, shelter and psycho-social counselling—and where these services existed, they have been typically underfunded, understaffed, uncoordinated or not of sufficient quality.

In this regard, IPPF calls on governments to:

• Accelerate the provision of an essential comprehensive, integrated package of sexual and reproductive health information and services through the primary health care system,
• Remove barriers to sexual and reproductive health information and services, by enacting and enforcing explicit legal and regulatory guarantees of access, with full respect for human rights, including rights to privacy, confidentiality, informed choice and voluntary consent in the provision of services, free from discrimination, coercion or violence; the elimination of restrictions based on age, marital status or number of children; and the removal of prohibitions on particular contraceptive methods that have been proven to be safe and effective, including emergency contraception,
• Recognize and adapt their national curricula in accordance with the UN technical guidelines on comprehensive sexuality education as an effective preventative measure and tool in equipping girls, adolescents and young people with knowledge about their rights, consent, health literacy and healthy and safe relationships, which are an important part of supporting young people’s health and well-being with long-term effects on sexual and reproductive outcomes (e.g. STIs)
• In partnership with CSOs and community-based groups, including women and youth organizations strengthen the implementation of the Joint program of Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence;
• Make the UN Secretary General’s appeal to for “peace at home — and in homes — around the world”  a key part of their national response plans in terms of prevention and redress of violence against women and girls including the pandemic’s impact on SGBV health services and ability to respond because of strain on health systems.