Direct GBV is mostly interpersonal violence against women that includes physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence15. Thus GBV is a result of social norms, cultures, and systems and seriously affects all aspects of women’s health, physical, sexual and reproductive, mental and behavioral. The health consequences of GBV can be both immediate and acute as well as long-lasting and chronic; indeed, negative health consequences may persist long after the violence has stopped. Rape and domestic violence accounts for 5% of the healthy life years of life lost to women aged 15 to 44 in developing countries[1]. A recent study published by the WHO in 2013systematically reviewed studies providing data on the health effects of physical and sexual intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence against women.
The review identified several consequences of violence against women. Globally, 38% of all murders of women are reportedly committed by intimate partners; out of all women who experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner, 42% experienced injuries, as a result. Compared to women who have not experienced partner violence, women survivors of such violence face a 16% higher risk of having a low-birth-weight baby, are more than twice as likely to have an induced abortion, and are more than twice as likely to experience depression. In some regions, women who experienced sexual IPV are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV and 1.6 times more likely to have syphilis compared to women have not experienced IPV. While the health consequences ofGBV are similar across low, middle- and high-income countries, the nature or severity of the effects of such violence may vary according to context-specific factors, such as poverty; gender inequality; cultural or religious practices; access to health, legal and other support services; conflict or
Call to Action:
WE All have a responsibility to End Violence Against Women. It is an every-day job, not only during 16 Days of Activism!!!
Join the Campaign, Orange the World, End Violence Against Women. Join us at #WLHIVSPEAKOUT; Join the Global Campaign (Orange the World, #HearMeToo)
[1] May 2017]
