Progress Made in Addressing GBV: A Retrospective

International Standards:

In 1973, the United Nations created the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which initially defined discrimination against women. CEDAW did not integrate anything about GBV, though, until the CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19: Violence against Women was published in 1992. This Recommendation defined international standards related to violence against women.

It wasn’t until 1993 that gender-based violence was officially defined by the United Nations through its Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which recognized violence against women as violating their fundamental rights and freedoms and called on international organizations and governments to act to prevent and respond to GBV. This Declaration specifically defined “violence against women” as “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 of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.” Also, in 1993, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action further underscored the necessity of addressing violence against women in the private and public spheres. Finally, in 2017, CEDAW published its General Recommendation No. 35 on gender-based violence against women, which updated General Recommendation No. 19 (1992). This recommendation provided further specific guidance on eliminating GBV.

A Snapshot of Global Action:

Over the past few years, international emphasis on preventing and responding to GBV has increased with corresponding actions and interventions. In 2013, the Call to Action on Protection from Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies was created as an initiative to pull together international actors and donors to improve GBV response in humanitarian contexts.

In terms of global advocacy, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which began in 1991, is an annual campaign beginning on November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) and ending on December 10 (Human Rights Day).

The first humanitarian intervention related to GBV occurred in 1999 in refugee camps in Tanzania, where UNHCR worked to address sexual violence against women. UNHCR continues to work to respond to GBV in displacement contexts. Additionally, various other UN organizations are major actors in GBV prevention and response, including UNFPA and UN Women.

The World Bank has been working to address GBV with its partners internationally since 2003. It launched a Global Gender-Based Violence Task Force in 2016, which has been active in improving the World Bank’s own ability to respond to GBV in its own projects.

In 2022, the United States Congress published its U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, which underpins USAID’s approach. USAID has been working to prevent and respond to GBV since 2012 and has achieved success in various contexts (i.e., projects in Uganda, India, and El Salvador).

The World Health Organization (WHO)focuses on strengthening the health sector to prevent and respond to GBV across the globe. WHO focuses on developing standard-setting guidance and tools, strengthening health workforce capacity, improving humanitarian health coordination, and deploying GBV expertise to new emergencies globally, and has completed various effective interventions.

The UN and the European Union (EU) are working together on the Spotlight Initiative, which is the largest international effort with the goal of ending violence against women and girls. The Spotlight Initiative aims to create relevant policy change to prevent and respond to GBV, drive societal change toward gender equitable norms and behaviors, provide services to survivors, and support local civil society and women-led organizations.