The World Health Organization estimates that violence against women is a greater cause of death among women ages 15-44 than cancer, malaria, and traffic accidents combined. Violence against women and girls is a grave violation of human rights. Gender-based violence is rooted in a global culture of discrimination which denies women equal rights with men, and which legitimizes the appropriation of women’s bodies for individual gratification or political ends. Everyday, all over the world, women face gender-specific persecution including genital mutilation, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, and domestic violence. At least one out of every three women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.
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