Recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveal that violence against women and girls is still shockingly widespread in the Western Pacific Region 🌏. Nearly one in three women worldwide has faced intimate partner or sexual violence in her lifetime—a statistic that hasn’t budged in 25 years.
In our region, over a quarter of women and girls report having experienced abuse. Here’s the breakdown:
- About 9% of women aged 15–49 suffered intimate partner violence (IPV) in the past year (rates vary from 1.2% to 42.2%).
- 4.3% endured non-partner sexual violence in the last 12 months; 9.4% have faced it at some point in life.
- Nearly 1 in 5 women has experienced IPV ever—still lower than the global average of 1 in 4, but far from acceptable.
In several Pacific island nations, the lifetime IPV rate even hits 50%—one of the highest levels recorded globally 😢.
WHO’s Regional Director Saia Ma’u Piukala stresses that these figures are a “profound violation of human rights” and a public health crisis that demands urgent action. Governments and communities must use data to drive stronger policies, scale up prevention, and invest in ready health systems, he said.
A recent WHO survey on health system readiness finds that while more countries are building violence‐prevention strategies into national plans, major gaps remain:
- Just a few countries offer comprehensive post-rape care nationwide, creating stark service gaps.
- Only about half of countries have conducted recent violence surveys; even fewer track violence-related homicides.
Stronger data and consistent support services are key to empowering survivors and stopping this cycle of violence. It’s time to turn the tide—every girl deserves safety, and every woman deserves the chance to thrive 💪.
Reference(s):
WHO: Violence against women, girls still widespread in Western Pacific
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