By Joke Kujenya
ACROSS CONTINENTS and communities, the scale of violence faced by women and girls was laid bare during a SHE and Rights (S&R) session convened amid the 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence and held to mark International Human Rights Day and Universal Health Coverage Day (IHRDUHCD).
The gathering brought together advocates, researchers and public health leaders who presented figures, experiences and institutional realities showing that violence against women and girls remains widespread despite decades of international commitments and policy efforts.
The session focused on sexual health with equity and rights and highlighted how violence continues to undermine human rights, development outcomes and access to health services.
Dr Pam Rajput, the plenary keynote speaker, said violence against women and girls remains rooted in gender inequality and continues to obstruct sustainable development. She said global progress has fallen far short of ending all forms of violence against women and girls.
“Violence against women and girls is a violation of human rights, rooted in gender inequality and an impediment to sustainable development.
Despite all the efforts over decades to end gender-based violence, the painful reality or truth is that we are far behind from the goal of ending all forms of violence against women and girls,” she said.
Dr Rajput said more than 840 million women have faced violence globally and that the number of women experiencing violence in conflict settings has doubled. She said that in the past 12 months alone,
316 million women experienced physical violence or sexual abuse by intimate partners, while 263 million women faced violence by others.
She added that more than 51,000 cases of femicide have been reported worldwide.
She said violence extends into public and professional life. “Even women parliamentarians are not free of violence,” she said, citing a survey in which 82 percent reported facing some form of psychosocial violence.
She said 73 percent of women journalists reported experiencing online violence and that 20 percent suffered offline attacks by anti gender groups.
Dr Rajput, a noted feminist and gender justice leader, currently serves as Emeritus Professor at Panjab University and previously chaired the Government of India High Level Committee on the Status of Women.
She said structural barriers must be addressed to reduce violence.
“We need to address structural inequalities, patriarchal norms, normalisation of gender based violence, consumerist neoliberal models of development, gender insensitivity of the enforcement agencies such as police or judiciary, and under investment in gender equality, if we are to address violence against women and girls,” she said. “We demand zero tolerance for violence against women both in policy and practice.”
Shobha Shukla, S &R Coordinator, and Host and President of Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health, Gender and Development Justice, said violence against women and girls has shown no meaningful decline since 2000.
“There is no change in violence against women and girls since 2000,” she said. She added that over the past 26 years, the annual decline in intimate partner and sexual violence has remained at 0.2 percent. “This is UNACCEPTABLE,” she said.
Shukla said legal protections remain uneven across the world. She said that while 165 of 193 countries have domestic violence laws, only 104 countries have comprehensive legislative policies and laws in place.
She said this means almost 48 percent of countries lack comprehensive frameworks to address domestic violence.
She said that even where laws exist, funding remains insufficient. “Those countries where laws exist, funding to address domestic violence is not adequate rather it has declined since 2022,” she said.
She said the statistic that one in three women worldwide has experienced violence at least once in her lifetime understates the reality. “Actual violence rates must be very high which is so very alarming, painful, and so very unacceptable,” she said.
Speakers also highlighted the intersection between gender based violence and HIV. Esther Asuquo, gender and peace advocate with the African Girls Empowerment Network in Nigeria, said violence increases women’s vulnerability to infection and entrenches stigma and discrimination.
“Gender based violence not only violates human rights of women and girls but also exposes them to risk of acquiring HIV and other infections,” she said. “Gender based violence and HIV creates a nexus or a cycle of violence, stigma and discrimination.”
She said gender based violence increases the risk of forced sex, physical trauma and sexual violence including intimate partner violence and rape. She said it also limits the ability of young women and girls to negotiate safer sex.
Albertina Nyatsi, Founder Director of Positive Women Together in Action Eswatini, spoke following the largest conference in Africa on AIDS and sexually transmitted infections, ICASA 2025, held in Ghana.
She said ending gender based violence is essential to ending AIDS and achieving gender equality by 2030.
“Gender based violence and HIV are deeply intertwined,” she said. She said HIV stigma and discrimination fuel violence and create a cycle in which fear, power imbalances and lack of resources prevent testing, treatment and safer sex negotiation.
She said addressing this requires integrating gender based violence services into HIV care, empowering women, challenging gender inequality and supporting individuals to negotiate safe practices.
Ending female genital mutilation or cutting by 2030 formed another key focus. Dr Huda Syyed, Founder of Sahara Sisters Collective and part of the Asian Network to end female genital mutilation or cutting, said governments have committed under the Sustainable Development Goals to eliminate the practice.
She said a UNICEF report from 2024 shows more than 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation or cutting. She said more than 80 million girls and women in Asia underwent the practice in 2024 and that the report shows a 15 percent increase compared with eight years earlier.
“We cannot meet SDGs when half the population is harmed, silenced or excluded,” she said. “Development justice demands that policies centre women’s safety, agency, and bodily integrity.”
Dr Syyed cited the United Nations Population Fund, which states that female genital mutilation or cutting can never be safe and has no medical justification.
UNFPA states the practice violates the right to health, the right to be free from violence, the right to life and physical integrity, the right to non discrimination, and the right to be free from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. UNFPA also states that performing the practice in a clinical setting violates medical ethics.
“Ending female genital mutilation or cutting in Asia and globally is not a marginal issue rather it is a central issue to gender and development justice as well as central to bodily autonomy, public health, right to equality, human rights, children’s rights and girl child rights,” Dr Syyed said.
She added that patriarchal notions of women’s bodies shaped by shame and secrecy must be challenged and dismantled.
The session also featured the launch of the All In Initiative focused on ending gender based violence. Alanna France said the initiative aims to drive leadership, accountability and support effective existing solutions to reduce and ultimately end gender based violence.
France, who is studying for an MSc in Women’s Health at University College London after completing a BSc in Human Health and Disease at Trinity College Dublin, said violence is preventable.
“Gender based violence is not inevitable rather it is entirely preventable. We already know what works,” she said.
She said UK funded initiatives demonstrated reductions in gender based violence of up to 50 percent within two to three years across 15 low and middle income countries. She said estimates place the global cost of violence against women at around 1.5 trillion US dollars per year and that the actual figure may be higher.
An ESSENCE report titled Insights and Impact from 25 years of HIV and AIDS Initiatives of Humana People to People India covering 2001 to 2025 was also launched during the session.
Lisbeth Aarup, Head of Project Development at Humana People to People India, said the organisation has worked for 25 years with HIV affected communities to reduce stigma and discrimination and address physical and mental violence.
Dr Sugata Mukhopadhyay, a public health expert, said Humana addressed structural issues that hinder service utilisation by underserved communities, including stigma, discrimination, gender inequity, human rights violations, gender based violence and social exclusion.
Ramphool Sharma of Humana People to People India said sex workers face gender based violence alongside criminalisation of sex work.
He said they experience physical violence, sexual violence, economic violence, rape, infection risks when clients refuse condom use and other abuses, while having few options to seek justice.
Ravinder Kumar of Humana People to People India said unhoused and migrant women face gender based inequalities including abuse and violence. He said they face higher risks of tuberculosis,
HIV and other sexually transmitted infections and significant barriers to accessing care, support and justice. “Their biggest enemy is not poverty, it is violence,” he said. “A woman without support remains invisible.”
Jahangeer Alam of Humana People to People India said stigma and discrimination increase HIV and tuberculosis risk for vulnerable populations and represent another form of violence women and girls endure.
Period poverty and stigma were also addressed. Angel Babirye, an Emerging Women Deliver leader from Uganda, said ending period poverty is essential for dignity and rights.
She said many girls across Africa lack safe absorbent materials and are forced to use unsafe alternatives such as soil, sand and in extreme cases cow dung, increasing the risk of reproductive tract infections.
She said some girls are forced into transactional sex, increasing exposure to sexual violence, HIV, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
She said one in four girls in Uganda drops out of school when menstruation begins and absenteeism triples during periods.
Babirye said menstruation remains surrounded by myths and misconceptions.
She said girls need safe spaces to speak about menstruation, access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and safe and private facilities to change and dispose of absorbent materials.
The SHE and Rights session was jointly hosted by the Global Center for Health Diplomacy and Inclusion, Women Deliver Conference 2026, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Asian Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women, Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights, Asia Pacific Media Alliance for Health, Gender and Development Justice, and CNS.
