In 2009, the women’s movement will mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the 15th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD); yet, in all these years, the multifarious forms of gender-based violence across the globe have not diminished.
Despite the substantial body of evidence that testifies to the fact that gender-based violence—physical, sexual and psychological—is a significant cause of ill-health and death among women, gender-based violence has not yet been adequately addressed as a public health issue at the national level.