Nova: Here's a number that should stop you in your tracks: 840 million. That's how many women and girls alive today have experienced physical or sexual violence. Nearly one in three. And here's the thing that really got me — that number has barely budged in over twenty years.

Nova: : Twenty years, Nova? That's a generation. How is that possible when we have more laws, more awareness, more global commitments than ever before?

Nova: That's exactly the question at the heart of UN Women's landmark publication — Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Global Commitments, Local Actions. It came out in late 2025 and it's the first comprehensive analysis of UN Women's Global Database. We're talking about more than 7,500 national measures reported by 193 countries — laws, policies, prevention programs, services. It is the most sweeping stocktake ever attempted.

Nova: : So it's like the world's biggest report card on how governments are actually doing on this issue — and it sounds like the grades aren't great.

Nova: Some are encouraging. Some are frankly alarming. And the timing couldn't be more urgent. The report comes as we mark 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, and with just a few years left on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. This is a moment of reckoning. We're going to unpack what this publication tells us — the progress, the gaps, and what it's actually going to take to end one of the most pervasive human rights violations on the planet.

Nova: : I'm ready. Let's dig in.

Nova: Let's establish the baseline, because the numbers are staggering. The World Health Organization and UN Women estimate that 840 million women globally — that's almost one in three women aged 15 and older — have been subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner, sexual violence by a non-partner, or both.

Nova: : And that doesn't even include sexual harassment, right?

Nova: Correct — that's just physical and sexual violence. If we zoom in on femicide — the most extreme form — in 2024 alone, about 50,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by intimate partners or family members. That's 137 women every single day. And here's a comparison that really drives it home: while 60 percent of all female homicides are committed by intimate partners or family members, only 11 percent of male homicides happen in the private sphere.

Nova: : So the home — the place that should be safest — is actually the most dangerous place for women. That's deeply unsettling.

Nova: It is. And what the UN Women publication emphasizes is that this isn't just a health crisis — it's an economic one too. In Vietnam, violence against women costs nearly 1.41 percent of the country's GDP. Across the European Union, gender-based violence costs an estimated 366 billion euros a year, with violence against women accounting for 289 billion of that.

Nova: : So we're paying for this whether we acknowledge it or not — in healthcare costs, lost productivity, days off work, the justice system.

Nova: Exactly. And yet, the report reveals that the annual decline in intimate partner violence has been just 0.2 percent over the last two decades. At that pace, elimination is centuries away.

Nova: : That's glacial. Let's talk about what governments are actually doing about it.

Nova: So this is where the publication gets really interesting. It's built on data from all 193 UN Member States, tracking over 7,500 measures. And the headline is: there is tangible, real progress. Eighty-four percent of states have now adopted specific legislation on violence against women and girls or domestic violence. Ninety percent have established some kind of institutional mechanism — think specialized commissions or task forces. And 95 percent report offering some form of support services.

Nova: : Those sound like strong numbers. So what's the catch?

Nova: The catch is in the details. Let's take legislation. Yes, 84 percent of states have laws — but over 60 percent of countries still lack rape laws based on the principle of consent. Less than half of the global population of women are protected by laws against cyber harassment. And 139 countries still lack adequate legislation prohibiting child marriage.

Nova: : So having a law on the books and having comprehensive legal protection are two very different things.

Nova: That's exactly the distinction UN Women makes. They developed a benchmark system — rating states as having high, medium, or low levels of comprehensiveness. Only 13 percent of states fell into the low category, which sounds good, but here's the kicker: only two regions have a majority of states at the high level — Europe at 70 percent and the Americas at 57 percent.

Nova: : And what about the rest of the world?

Nova: Asia has 21 percent of states in the low category, Oceania has 21 percent. And here's the statistic that I think ties it all together: the average rate of intimate partner violence in the past 12 months is nearly 2.5 times higher in states with low levels of comprehensive measures — 19.3 percent — compared to states with high levels of comprehensiveness, where it's 7.9 percent.

Nova: : So the correlation is direct and powerful. Investment in comprehensive approaches literally saves lives.

Nova: And yet, the publication shows that among high-income states, 59 percent achieve high comprehensiveness, but among low-income states, that drops to just 15 percent. The countries bearing the heaviest burden have the fewest resources to respond.

Nova: One of the most powerful contributions of UN Women's broader body of work — and referenced throughout this publication — is the RESPECT framework. It's an acronym for seven evidence-based strategies to prevent violence against women and girls.

Nova: : Break it down for us. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. What does each letter stand for?

Nova: R is for Relationship skills strengthened — teaching interpersonal communication, conflict management, and shared decision-making. E is Empowerment of women — building women's confidence, negotiation skills, and economic independence. S is Services ensured — that means shelters, legal aid, healthcare, and psychosocial support for survivors. P is Poverty reduced — because economic stress is a major driver of violence. E is Environments made safe — from schools to public transport to workplaces. C is Child and adolescent abuse prevented — breaking the intergenerational cycle early. And T is Transformed attitudes, beliefs, and norms — tackling the root causes: misogyny, rigid gender roles, the normalization of violence.

Nova: : What I love about this framework is that it's not just reactive — it's deeply preventive. It's saying, let's stop violence before it starts.

Nova: Exactly. UN Women has been clear: prevention is the only way to eliminate violence completely. For too long, the focus was almost entirely on response — what happens after the violence occurs. But the evidence has grown dramatically over the last decade. We now know what works. For instance, countries with domestic violence legislation have significantly lower rates of intimate partner violence — 9.5 percent compared to 16.1 percent in countries without such laws.

Nova: : But laws alone aren't enough, right? You need implementation, you need cultural change.

Nova: Absolutely. The publication highlights that comprehensive approaches — where legislation, services, prevention programs, and institutional mechanisms all work together — are what drive real results. A state that passes a domestic violence law but doesn't fund shelters or train police officers isn't going to see the same impact.

Nova: : It's like building a house with only one wall. It might look like progress, but it won't stand.

Nova: And this brings us to what might be the most alarming finding in the broader landscape of UN Women's recent reporting. In October 2025, UN Women released a companion report called At Risk and Underfunded. It found that sweeping global aid cuts — an estimated 78 billion dollars — are dismantling the very organizations that are critical to ending violence against women.

Nova: : How bad is it?

Nova: More than a third of organizations surveyed — 34 percent — have suspended or shut down their programs to end violence against women and girls entirely. More than 40 percent have scaled back or closed life-saving services like shelters, legal aid, and psychosocial support. And 78 percent reported reduced access to essential services for survivors.

Nova: : So at the exact moment the UN Women publication is showing us what works and what needs to be done, the funding to actually do it is being pulled away.

Nova: That's the tragic irony. And look at these numbers: less than 1 percent of official development assistance is directed toward ending gender-based violence. Ninety-nine percent of gender-related aid doesn't reach local women's rights organizations and feminist movements. Only about 5 percent of OECD member states' funding for ending violence against women goes to civil society organizations.

Nova: : The organizations doing the actual frontline work are being starved.

Nova: And it gets worse. UN Women's survey of 411 women's organizations across 44 crisis settings found that nearly half expected to close within six months due to funding cuts. Meanwhile, 84 percent of women's organizations report that demand for their services has increased since January 2025. So you have soaring demand and collapsing supply.

Nova: : This isn't just a funding gap — it's a funding catastrophe. What are the ripple effects?

Nova: The report At Risk and Underfunded found that 59 percent of organizations perceived an increase in impunity and normalization of violence. Eighty-five percent predict severe backsliding in laws and protections. Almost one in four had to suspend prevention interventions entirely. And here's the human cost: at least one million women and girls have already lost access to critical support.

Nova: : One million. That's not abstract — that's one million individual human beings who needed help and the door was closed.

Nova: One area that the UN Women publication and its related strategy documents highlight as a growing frontier is technology-facilitated violence against women and girls. This is an area where the legal and policy response is still catching up.

Nova: : What does technology-facilitated violence actually look like?

Nova: It ranges from cyber harassment and online stalking to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, coercive control through digital surveillance, and online hate speech. The data that does exist is alarming. In the Arab States, 60 percent of women internet users reported exposure to online violence in the past year. In the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, more than half of women online have experienced some form of technology-facilitated violence. And 73 percent of women journalists globally have experienced online violence.

Nova: : And journalists and politicians face especially high risks, don't they?

Nova: They do. Eighty-two percent of women parliamentarians across five regions reported experiencing psychological violence while serving their terms. Forty-four percent received death, rape, or abduction threats. And 65 percent were subjected to sexist remarks — primarily by male colleagues in parliament itself.

Nova: : That's not just a safety issue — that's a democracy issue. If women can't participate in public life without facing violence, then half the population is being silenced.

Nova: Exactly. And UN Women published a dedicated strategy on preventing and eliminating technology-facilitated violence in late 2025, alongside a model framework for legislation. The core argument is that comprehensive laws addressing the full spectrum of technology-facilitated violence are imperative to end impunity. But right now, less than half the world's women are protected by cyber harassment laws.

Nova: : So we're essentially building the internet without guardrails, and women are paying the price.

Nova: So let's bring it all together. UN Women's Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: Global Commitments, Local Actions gives us three big takeaways. First, the scale of violence remains staggering and stubbornly persistent — 840 million women, one in three, with barely any change in two decades. Second, we now have clear evidence of what works: comprehensive approaches combining laws, services, prevention, and institutional mechanisms can cut intimate partner violence rates dramatically — down from over 19 percent to under 8 percent in places that take it seriously.

Nova: : And third — the bitter irony — just as we've figured out what to do, the funding to do it is being pulled away. A third of frontline organizations are shutting down programs. A million women and girls have lost access to support. This is not the time to step back.

Nova: The publication makes clear that ending violence against women and girls is not a distant aspiration. It is achievable. But it requires political will, sustained investment, and a genuine commitment to the comprehensive approaches that the evidence demands. The RESPECT framework gives us the roadmap. The Global Database gives us the accountability tool. What's missing is the resources and the urgency.

Nova: : So if someone listening wants to know what they can do — what would you tell them?

Nova: First, know the facts. This publication and the Global Database are publicly available — they're tools for accountability. Second, support women's rights organizations in your community and globally — they are the backbone of this work and they are under existential threat. And third, demand that your government not only passes laws but funds their implementation, tracks their impact, and treats ending violence against women as the public emergency that it is.

Nova: : Because 137 women killed every day is an emergency. One in three women experiencing violence is an emergency. And the evidence says we can change this — if we choose to.

Nova: This is Aibrary. Congratulations on your growth!