The report’s findings are based on data from the largest WHO study ever on the prevalence of violence against women.
“Approximately 736 million are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner – a number that have remained largely unchanged over the past decade,” the WTO statement added.
Violence against intimate partners is the most common form that women suffer, with about 641 million worldwide. The organization said that younger women are especially at risk of having such violence, and one in four women aged 15 to 24 get violence at the hands of an intimate partner in their mid-twenties.
“It is deeply disturbing that this pervasive violence against men against women continues not only unchanged, but is also at its worst for young women aged 15-24, who may also be young mothers,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of the UN, said.
She added: “Every government needs to take strong, proactive steps to address this, and involve women in it.”
According to the report, location and wealth are important factors, finding that approximately 37% of women living in the poorest countries have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence during their lifetime. In some countries, the prevalence of such violence was as high as one in two women.
The official WHO regions of Oceania, South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa had the highest percentage of intimate partner violence. According to the WHO, Europe had the lowest rates.
“Violence against women is endemic in every country and every culture, harming millions of women and their families. It is exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director of the WHO, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Violence against women cannot be stopped with a vaccine,” he added. “We can only fight it with deep – rooted and sustained efforts – by governments, communities and individuals – to change harmful attitudes, improve access to opportunities and services for women and girls, and promote healthy and mutually respectful relationships.”
The new WHO report is based on data collected from 2000 to 2018 and therefore does not reflect the toll of the pandemic on women. The United Nations had earlier said domestic violence during the closure of Covid-19 was a “shadow pandemic.”
On International Women’s Day, March 8, equal rights protests were held around the world. Nearly 20,000 women gathered in Mexico City in protests against women’s deaths. Violence against women is an ongoing issue in the country where at least 969 women were killed in 2020.
Monday’s protests later turned violent, with 62 police officers and 19 civilians injured in Mexico’s secretary of security and civil protection.
According to Reuters, thousands of women also joined the International Women’s Day rallies across Spain, while hundreds of people in Australia protested outside government buildings as a national political scandal over the treatment of women in public life escalated.
CNN Health’s Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.