ActionAid released a report today detailing the extent of abuses against women world-wide.  

ActionAid is urging UK government to take action and end these appalling abuses through foreign policy initiatives immediately.  

The report entitled “Destined to fail? How violence against women is undoing development” exposes such shocking statistics as the fact that one in three women worldwide will experience abuse at some point in their lives.  

The report offers solutions in the form of suggesting the UK look to the U.S. and appoint a Minister on violence against women, ensuring that this issue would be foremost in aid, development and foreign policy projects.  

The report goes on to point out the economic as well as social and psychological costs in an effort to speak to the multi-dimensional damage these abuses incur. Policing costs, hospital expenses as well as missed work or education are all detrimental effects caused by the abuse of women all over the globe.

Zohra Moosa, the report’s author, said: “Violence against women is an appalling but depressingly common abuse of women’s rights. We can’t afford to ignore its impact on individuals and upon whole societies.

“Violence against women is a fundamental barrier to eradicating poverty. It drains public resources, undermines human capital and lowers economic productivity. Half the world is unable to fully meet the challenges of the day because they are fighting for their safety.

“That’s why the government must follow America’s lead and create a Minister whose job is to put ending violence against women at the heart of the UK’s foreign policy. Women’s right to live free of violence is falling through the cracks because no one is directly responsible for monitoring it.”

The international community has been remiss in its attention to this issue and the hope is this ministerial position will help to prioritise this pressing and serious problem.

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