Home > Women find no shelter from violence at home: WHO
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Urgent action is needed to tackle domestic violence against women, which is widespread, deep-rooted and largely hidden in a wide range of societies, a study by the UN health agency said.
The study conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 10 countries found that between 15 percent (Japan) and 71 percent (Ethiopia) of the women interviewed had been subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate male partner during their lifetime.
From about one-fifth of women in Ethiopia to more than half in Peru, the violence of those in the "ever abused" group was severe enough to result in physical injury including fractures and eye damage.
"Women are more at risk from violence involving the people they know at home than from strangers in the street," WHO Director General Lee Jong Wook told reporters.
In many instances, the interviewers conducting the study discovered that it was the first time the women had been able to talk about their partners’ violence, while in some societies the victims accepted it as "normal".
"This study reveals one of the least desirable facets of the world we live in," Spain’s Health Minister Elena Salgado commented at the launch of the study.
The WHO said the study "challenges the perception that home is a safe haven for women".
It called for "urgent action" by health authorities, community leaders and governments, warning that the cost to society, individuals and health systems was "enormous".
High rates of sexual abuse experienced by girls and women — ranging from six percent in Japan to 59 percent in Ethiopia — were "particularly alarming" in the midst of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the study underlined.
It also slated a high degree of emotional abuse of women, warning that overall physical and mental violence had a far deeper and durable impact than the immediate harm it caused.
"It has devastating consequences for the women who experience it, and a traumatic effect on those who witness it, particularly children," said the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Yakin Erturk.
"It shames states that fail to prevent it and societies that tolerate it," he added.
The study covered 24,000 women in selected areas or cities in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Tanzania, and Thailand.
Wide differences were found between prevalence of violence in Japan and in largely provincial or poorer settings such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Tanzania, although the outcome was the same.
"Partner violence appears to have a similar impact on women’s health and well-being regardless of where she lives, the prevalence of violence in her setting, or her cultural or economic background," said researcher Charlotte Watts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
More than three quarters of women in urban areas in Brazil, Japan, Namibia and Serbia said there was no reason for the domestic violence, while about one quarter said so in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Samoa.
At least 20 percent of the women reporting physical violence had never told anyone before being interviewed, while the others were more likely to confide in friends or family than approach medical staff or authorities.
"It’s still considered a matter not to be shared with outsiders," said Wassana Im-em of Mahidol University, adding that the impact of domestic abuse goes beyond physical injuries to become a "chronic long term health problem throughout society".
The study found a high number of abused women suffered secondary ailments such as depression and reproductive health disorders.
Almost half of nearly 3,000 women surveyed in Thailand have been battered or sexually assaulted by their partners, as activists warned Thailand still has no satisfactory legal means to combat abuse, which is often dismissed by authorities as a private matter between women and their partners.
Abuse is an "endemic problem. In fact it is a public health problem in every society around the world," said William Aldis, the WHO’s representative in Thailand.
A much grimmer picture emerged in Bangladesh, where an average of 57 percent of women surveyed had been either physically or sexually assaulted.
"Violence against women represents an added burden on already struggling health systems in developing countries," said the WHO’s Henrica Jansen, of the Department of Gender and Women’s Health.
The authors said they had to develop new guidelines for carrying out the research after women were assaulted following their participation in previous surveys on the issue.