According to country data, up to 70 per cent of women experience violence in their lifetime.
Violence against women takes many forms – physical, sexual, psychological and economic. These forms of violence are
interrelated and affect women from before birth to old age. Some types of violence, such as trafficking, cross national boundaries. Women who experience violence suffer a range of health problems and their ability to participate in public life is diminished. Violence against women harms families and communities across generations and reinforces other violence prevalent in society.

Violence against women also impoverishes women, their families, communities and nations. Violence against women is not confined to a specific culture, region or country, or to particular groups of women within a society. The roots of violence against women lie in persistent discrimination against women.

The most common form of violence experienced by women globally is physical violence inflicted by an intimate partner, with women beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused. Several global surveys suggest that half of all women who die
from homicide are killed by their current or former husbands or partners.
• In Australia, Canada, and Israel 40 to 70 per cent of female murder victims were killed by their partners, according to the
World Health Organization.
• In the United States, one-third of women murdered each year are killed by intimate partners.
• In South Africa, a woman is killed every six hours by an intimate partner.
• In India, 22 women were killed each day in dowry-related murders in 2007.
• In Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day.

Psychological or emotional violence by intimate partners is also widespread.

"Honour killing”
In many societies, rape victims, women suspected of engaging in premarital sex, and women accused of adultery have been murdered by their relatives because the violation of a woman’s chastity is viewed as an affront to the family’s honour. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that the annual worldwide number of so-called “honour killing” victims may be as high as 5,000 women.

Sexual harassment
• Between 40 and 50 percent of women in European Union countries experience unwanted sexual advancements, physical contact or other forms of sexual harassment at their workplace.
• In the United States, 83 percent of girls aged 12 to 16 experience some for of sexual harassment in public schools.
• Small surveys in Asia-Pacific countries indicate that 30 to 40 per cent of women workers report some form of harassment – verbal, physical or sexual.

Cost and Consequences

The costs of violence against women are extremely high. They include the direct costs of services to treat and support abused women and their children and to bring perpetrators to justice. The indirect costs include lost employment and productivity, and the costs in human pain and suffering.
• The cost of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceeds $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion is for direct
medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.
• A 2004 study in the United Kingdom estimated the total direct and indirect costs of domestic violence, including pain and
suffering, to be £23 billion per year or £440 per person.
• In Canada, the annual costs of direct expenditures related to violence against women have been estimated at 684 million Canadian dollars for the criminal justice system, 187 million for police and 294 million for the cost of counselling and training, totalling more than 1 billion a year.
• In Uganda the cost of domestic violence was estimated at US$2.5 million in 2007

ORANGE DAY

In July last year the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign proclaimed every 25th of the month as Orange Day. Initiated and led by the UNiTE campaign Global Youth Network, worldwide activities implemented on this day by UN country offices and civil society organizations strive to highlight issues relevant to preventing and ending violence against women and girls, not only once a year, on 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women), but every month.

HOW THE DECISION CAME ABOUT

On 19 October 1999, at the 17th meeting of the Third Committee during the 54th session of the General Assembly, the representative of the Dominican Republic on behalf of itself and 74 Member States introduced a draft resolution (document A/C.3/54/L.14) calling for the designation of 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The matter was taken up again at the 30th meeting of the Third Committee on 3 November 1999, when the Committee had before it a revised draft resolution entitled "International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women" (document A/C.3/54/L.14/Rev.1), by which the Assembly would decide to designate 25 November as that International Day. The draft was sponsored by 79 States.

By the text on the International Day, the General Assembly would invite worldwide organization of activities on that day to raise public awareness of the problem of violence against women. The draft expressed alarm that endemic violence against women was impeding women’s opportunities to achieve legal, social, political and economic equality in society. The Assembly would reiterate that the term "violence against women" would refer to acts capable of causing physical, sexual or psychological harm, whether in public or private life.

The Third Committee approved the draft resolution without a vote, in which the date of 25 November would be designated the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

* Figures from UN