Women and abuse.

There were over 1 million female victims of
domestic abuse in England and Wales in the last
year1. Over 300,000 women are sexually assaulted
and 60,000 women are raped each year. Overall
in the UK, more than one in four women will
experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, often
with years of psychological abuse1. Worldwide
violence against women and girls can be a problem
of pandemic proportions. This is unacceptable.
The vast majority of these violent acts are
perpetrated by men on women. In 2009/10, women
were the victim of over seven out of ten (73%)
incidents of domestic violence1. More than one
third (36%) of all rapes recorded by the police are
committed against children under 16 years of age2.
This is unacceptable.
Internationally, findings in a number of developing
countries suggest that violence against women
and girls is significant and is often endemic.
Between 40% and 60% of women surveyed in
Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru, Samoa, Thailand and
Tanzania said that they had been physically and/
or sexually abused by their close partners3. This is
unacceptable.
Violence against women and girls is a genderbased
crime which requires a focused and robust
cross-government approach underpinned by a
single agreed definition. It is for this reason that
we are using the United Nations (UN) Declaration
(1993) on the elimination of violence against
women to guide our work across all government
departments: ‘Any act of gender-based violence that
results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or
psychological harm or suffering to women, including
threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation
1 Figures derived from 2009/10 British Crime Survey data
http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/
2 Walker A, Kershaw C and Nicholas S (2006) Crime in England
and Wales 2005/06, Home Office Statistical Bulletin
http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/
3 WHO (2005): Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and
Domestic Violence Against Women
www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/
violence/9241593512/en/index.html
of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private
life’. The declaration enshrines women’s rights
to live without the fear of violence and abuse
and the United Kingdom’s ratification of the UN
Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) upholds
this principle. This is the first time that government
has agreed to work to a single definition and we
will specifically include girls in our approach.
The gendered pattern of violence against
women and girls need to be understood and
acknowledged. However, we recognise that men
and boys can be victims of violence and that it
can affect whole families, including children. Our
work will include them4. Men also have a key role
in challenging violence and helping to change the
attitudes and actions of their peers. We want to
work with them to achieve this.
Our vision is for a society in which no woman or
girl has to live in fear of violence. To achieve this
vision, society needs to:
• prevent such violence from happening by
challenging the attitudes and behaviours which
foster it and intervening early where possible
to prevent it;
• provide adequate levels of support where
violence does occur;
• work in partnership to obtain the best
outcome for victims and their families; and
• take action to reduce the risk to women
and girls who are victims of these crimes
and ensure that perpetrators are brought to
justice.
4 The government is committed to continuing to uphold the
principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights
of the Child. It takes all forms of violence against children
extremely seriously and has in place clear frameworks and
guidance to promote and safeguard the welfare of children. It
has ratified the optional protocol on the sale of children, child
prostitution and child pornography, drawing special attention
to these serious violations of children’s rights and the steps to