• World
  • Jul 30

Young women face alarming rates of intimate partner violence, shows WHO report

• Nearly a quarter of all adolescent girls who have been in a relationship — close to 19 million — will have experienced intimate partner violence by the time they turn 20, the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a new analysis.

• The study, published in the medical journal the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, draws on existing data and provides the first detailed examination of the prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence faced by girls aged 15-19 years who have been in intimate relationships. 

• Almost 1 in 6 (16 per cent) experienced such violence in the past year. 

• Partner violence can have devastating impacts on young people’s health, educational achievement, future relationships, and lifelong prospects. 

• From a health perspective, it heightens the likelihood of injuries, depression, anxiety disorders, unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and many other physical and psychological conditions.

• While violence against adolescent girls occurs everywhere, the analysis highlights significant differences in prevalence. 

• Based on WHO’s estimates, the worst affected regions are Oceania (47 per cent) and central sub-Saharan Africa (40 per cent), for instance, while the lowest rates are in central Europe (10 per cent) and central Asia (11 per cent). 

• The new analysis found that intimate partner violence against adolescent girls is most common in lower-income countries and regions, in places where there are fewer girls in secondary school, and where girls have weaker legal property ownership and inheritance rights compared to men. 

• Child marriage also significantly heightens risks. 

• Spousal age differences create power imbalances, economic dependency and social isolation — all of which increase the likelihood of abuse. 

Adolescent girls need targeted services and support

• The study highlights the urgent need to strengthen support services and early prevention measures tailored for adolescents, alongside actions to advance women’s and girls’ agency and rights — from school-based programmes that educate both boys and girls on healthy relationships and violence prevention, to legal protections, and economic empowerment. 

• Since many adolescents lack their own financial resources, they can face particular challenges in leaving abusive relationships.

• Countries need to have policies and programmes in place that increase equality for women and girls.

• This means ensuring secondary education for all girls, securing gender-equal property rights and ending harmful practices such as child marriage, which are often underpinned by the same inequitable gender norms that perpetuate violence against women and girls.

• Currently, no country is on track to eliminate violence against women and girls by the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal target date. 

• Ending child marriage — which affects 1 in 5 girls globally — and expanding girls’ access to secondary education will be critical factors for reducing partner violence against adolescent girls.

• New WHO guidelines on prevention of child marriage are planned for release by the end of 2024.

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