SARAH BOSELEY
More than a third of all women worldwide (35.6 per cent) will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, usually from a male partner, according to the first comprehensive study of its kind, from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The report reveals the shocking extent of attacks on women by the men with whom they share their lives, with 30 per cent of woman being attacked by partners. It also finds that a large proportion of women’s murders (38 per cent) are carried out by intimate partners.
"These findings send a powerful message that violence against women is a global health problem of epidemic proportions," said Dr Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO. "We also see that the world's health systems can and must do more for women who experience violence."
The highest levels of violence against women are in Africa, where nearly half of all women – 45.6 per cent – will suffer physical or sexual violence.
Wealthier nations
In Europe, the proportion is 27.2 per cent. Yet wealthier nations are not necessarily always safer for women – a third of women in high-income countries (32.7 per cent) will experience violence at some stage in their lives. Nearly half the women who suffer violence (42 per cent) are injured as a result, which can bring them to the attention of healthcare staff. That, says the report, is often the first opportunity for the violence in the home to be detected and for the woman to be offered help. Violence has a profound effect on women's health. Some arrive at hospital with broken bones, while others suffer pregnancy-related complications and mental problems.
The two reports from the WHO – one on the prevalence of violence and the other offering guidelines for healthcare staff on helping women – are the work of Dr Claudia Garcia-Moreno, lead specialist in gender, reproductive rights, sexual health and adolescence at WHO, and Prof Charlotte Watts, an epidemiologist who specialises in gender, violence and health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. – (Guardian service)