The study highlights the need for all sectors to engage in eliminating tolerance for violence against women and better support for women who experience it.23 June 2013 – The first global report on the worldwide prevalence of violence against women and the serious impact of violence on women’s health was released on 20 June 2013. The report, developed by WHO, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the South African Medical Research Council, presents data on the prevalence of two forms of violence against women: violence by an intimate partner (intimate partner violence) and sexual violence by someone other than a partner (non-partner sexual violence). Evidence clearly shows that women who have experienced intimate partner violence have higher rates of depression, HIV, injury and death, and are more likely to have low birth weight babies, than those who haven’t.

Research on the health effects of non-partner sexual violence is more limited, however this form of violence also has profound implications for the physical, sexual, reproductive, emotional, mental and social well-being of women.