International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women: The Multifaceted Crisis of Violence Against Women and Girls

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women is not merely an annual observance; it is a global, urgent call to confront and dismantle one of the most persistent and pervasive violations of human rights worldwide. Gender-based violence is not a random affliction but a structural consequence of deeply entrenched patriarchal, cultural, and political inequalities. This day demands a fundamental shift in perspective, moving beyond individual incidents to address the systemic roots that allow violence against women and girls to flourish in every society. The scale of the crisis, the fatality of its continuum, its adaptation across new terrains, and the compounding effect of intersectional vulnerabilities all underscore the critical need for comprehensive and sustained systemic transformation.

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) represents one of the most pervasive human rights violations globally, transcending geographical boundaries, socioeconomic strata, and cultural contexts. Globally, almost one in three women have experienced physical, sexual, or both forms of violence—whether perpetrated by an intimate partner, a non-partner, or both—at least once in their lifetime. This statistic, while sobering, represents only the visible tip of a much deeper problem that includes emotional, economic, and psychological abuse. The gravest manifestation of this systemic domination is the fatal continuum of femicide. In 2023 alone, statistics indicate that more than 51,000 women were murdered by intimate partners or family members, translating to a woman being killed every ten minutes. Each act of femicide is rarely an isolated tragedy; rather, it is the devastating and often predictable culmination of unchecked, systemic gender-based violence, sustained by a culture of patriarchy.

Despite decades of effort, the crisis remains lethal and is quickly moving into digital spaces. Even newer modalities, such as digital harassment and technology-facilitated abuse, are rooted in the same continuum of domination, perpetually sustained by patriarchal norms and a chronic failure of legal and social systems to hold perpetrators accountable.

Furthermore, gender-based violence has demonstrated an alarming capacity to

expand its terrains, moving beyond the traditional private or domestic sphere to permeate institutional, digital, and ecological domains. Violence has intensified across workplaces, where institutional cultures often silence victims and protect abusers; in digital spaces, where harassment and technological abuse create new vectors for control and psychological harm; and crucially, in conflict and climate-affected zones, where displacement and instability exacerbate existing vulnerabilities. These emerging terrains expose how structural violence is not static but dynamically adapts to new sociopolitical and technological contexts, revealing the profound reach of gender inequality into every facet of modern life.

Crucially, the experience of violence is neither uniform nor isolated; it is powerfully shaped by intersectionality. Women positioned at the margins of society including those in humanitarian crises, migrant communities, indigenous groups, or those who are LGBTIQ+ or disabled, often face compounded and intersecting risks. For instance, a disabled migrant woman may face discrimination based on her gender, her disability, and her citizenship status, multiplying her risk of exploitation and violence. The erasure or simplification of these intersections in policy and data reproduces the invisibility of the most vulnerable and renders interventions ineffective for those who need them most. Genuine efforts to eliminate violence must, therefore, be predicated on an intersectional analysis that addresses the unique combination of oppressions women face.

Real elimination of the crisis requires a collective commitment to systemic change. Systemic transformation starts with policy that is adequately resourced and informed by reality. One informed way to go about it is through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB). GRB focuses on socially informed policy making processes that are truly representative of the needs. By incorporating a gender lens into budget analysis, governments can prevent unintended fiscal consequences that might increase women’s economic vulnerability, which is a key driver of violence. It is imperative to come up with legal systems that are victim-centered, trauma-informed, and free from gender bias. When justice systems consistently fail to prosecute and convict, they become enablers of violence. Reforms must ensure that reporting of crimes against women leads to justice, rebuilding trust, and deterring future acts instead of further othering and oppressing of the victims. Systemic transformation cannot be dictated from the top; it must be demanded from the bottom up. Feminist organizations, especially those representing marginalized women, must be recognized as essential partners of policy-making as they mobilize public pressure, develop innovative local solutions, advocate for survivor needs, and hold governments to their commitments, ensuring policies remain radical and ambitious.

This integrated approach is the only way to dismantle the fundamental structure of male dominance, proving that violence against women is indeed a manifestation of power that can, and must, be eliminated through collective, intersectional, and sustained feminist action.

We understand by now the inescapable truth: violence against women is not a series of isolated moral failings, but a systemic output of entrenched patriarchal power structures. Any intervention lacking a fundamental critique of male dominance is destined to fail, merely mitigating the symptoms of a social ailment designed to perpetuate itself. The integrated approach—demanding simultaneous action across legal, educational, economic, and cultural spheres—is, therefore, not simply the best option, but the only viable strategy for achieving lasting liberation. It acknowledges that effective change cannot be unilateral; it requires the synergy of rigorous policy enforcement, transformative education that redefines gender roles from childhood, and economic policies that grant women true autonomy and escape from situations predicated on financial vulnerability. Furthermore, we cannot overstate the centrality of intersectionality in this collective endeavor. The fight against violence is fundamentally compromised if it fails to center the experiences of women whose lives are simultaneously shaped by racism, classism, ableism, and heteronormativity. Every successful legal challenge, every shift in educational curriculum, every instance of male allyship, and every empowered woman represents an irrefutable piece of evidence that the seemingly monolithic power of patriarchy is, in fact, brittle and vulnerable to sustained pressure.