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Countering the Pandemic of Gender-Based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People: The Lancet Commission [thelancet.com]

 

By Felicia Marie Knaul, Flavia Bustreo, and Richard Horton, The Lancet, December 20, 2019

Violence against women and young people is persistent and perverse. Few if any health conditions or risk factors affect such large segments of the global population, and people living in poverty and vulnerable situations, including forced migration and humanitarian emergencies, are especially at risk. More than a third of women and girls—over 1 billion people—experience intimate partner violence or non-partner physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Nearly a quarter of all adults worldwide report physical abuse as children and the lifetime prevalence of childhood sexual abuse is unacceptably high for both sexes, although more frequent for girls (almost 20%) than boys (almost 10%). Country-specific data, differentiated by age and considering all gender identities, are required to monitor progress in reducing prevalence of gender-based violence (GBV) yet are scarce except in high-income countries.

GBV and maltreatment of young people violate fundamental human rights to equality and non-discrimination, life, health, security of the person, privacy, and freedom from torture and cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. Survivors are scarred and live with long-term effects that constitute risk factors for lifetime physical, sexual and reproductive, and mental health. The effects of GBV and maltreatment impact whole societies and economies—they increase demands on overstretched health systems and perpetuate poverty and gender inequality by constraining educational attainment and economic productivity of the survivor and their family. The intergenerational cycle of violence and trauma can cause a legacy of suffering, and multicountry studies show that boys who witnessed their mother being beaten have more than 2·5 times the odds of ever perpetrating violence against their own partner.

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