Violence against women and girls

An ActionAid guide showing activists how to use international laws and frameworks to demand action and create real change for women and girls.

A clear, ActionAid guide to the regional and international tools and agreements activists can use to fight violence against women and girls and hold governments accountable.

Every three days, a woman is killed in the UK. As the world marks 16 Days of Activism, it’s time to stop counting the losses and start demanding real change.

It has been 25 years since the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, the foundational document of the Women, Peace & Security (WPS) agenda.  WPS emerged from a bold feminist demand: women must not be invisible in war or in peace, so what impact has it made over the last quarter of a century?

"Hey, sexy!" Millions of women and girls around the world will have heard that phrase - or something like it - cutting into their daily lives, unwanted and uninvited, as they walk to work or get the bus to school. 

Some might say that it's harmless, just a joke, or perhaps even a compliment. But catcalling is none of those things. It's a violation of women's rights; an explicit demonstration of power, one that is intended to frighten or intimidate the person it's addressed to. It is based in deep-rooted gender inequality, which sees women's bodies as not their own. 

Find out about the striking relationship between gender-based violence and economic policy making – in particular, the links between austerity and violence.