Ending Violence against Women and Girls

Ending Violence against Women and Girls Ending Violence against Women and Girls

One in three women worldwide suffers some form of violence in her lifetime. By restricting women’s choices and limiting their ability to act, the persistence of violence against women has serious consequences for peace and security, economic development and poverty reduction. Thus, it hampers all efforts towards a future just society.

International experts from academia, civil society and international organisations have nominated twenty-five policies from around the world that were implemented to improve the lives of women. Together, they reflect the broad scope of existing policy responses at local, national and transnational levels.

It is important to acknowledge that violence against women and girls is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality and, in order to end it, a transformation of gender relations towards a more gender-just society is necessary. This cannot be achieved through any single law or policy: the winners of the Future Policy Award provide inspiration for specific “parts of the puzzle” of a range of policy measures that can together lead to an end of violence against women and girls. Our analysis and the Jury’s decision on the winners have provided important insights into the key elements of best laws and policies in this field. We have summarised them in the section “key recommendations”.

Violence against women and girls has been on the political agenda for a relatively short time. Some of the most inspiring and exemplary policy approaches are still so new that assessing their effectiveness is not yet possible. However, not considering them would have excluded some of the most promising future just policy measures. Therefore, in 2014, the WFC also presented a “Vision Award” for the most promising policy approach, which can prove its effectiveness in the years to come.

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