The World's Shame

Around the world, rape and sexual abuse are everyday violent occurrences -- affecting close to a billion women and girls over their lifetimes. However, despite the pervasiveness of these crimes, laws are insufficient, inconsistent, not systematically enforced and, sometimes, promote violence.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. According to UNICEF, around 120 million girls worldwide, just over 1 in 10, have experienced “forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts” at some point in their lives. Everyone reading this report is likely to have either survived, or to know someone who has experienced, some form of sexual violence.

By any measure, gender-based violence, including sexual violence, is being inflicted on women and girls in epidemic proportions. If it were a medical disease, sexual violence would have the serious attention and the funding to address it, from governments and independent donors alike. Sexual violence is inflicted on men and boys as well as on women and girls.


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