UN: Funding cuts threaten efforts to combat violence against women

A new report issued by UN Women revealed that one-third of women’s rights and civil society organizations surveyed in a global poll of 428 organizations were forced to suspend or halt their programs aimed at combating violence against women.

The report indicated that over 40% of these organizations had to close life-saving services, such as shelters, legal assistance, psychosocial support, and healthcare, due to severe funding gaps.

Additionally, 78% of organizations reported a decline in survivors’ access to essential services, while 59% observed an increase in impunity and the normalization of violence within their communities.

Kalliopi Mingeriou, Head of UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Section, called on governments to increase funding for these organizations and make it more flexible, emphasizing that “women’s rights organizations form the backbone of progress in combating violence, yet they are now being pushed to the brink of collapse.”

She added: “Funding cuts cannot be allowed to erase decades of hard-won gains.”

The report also notes that “violence against women remains one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world,” with an estimated 736 million women, roughly one in three, having experienced physical or sexual violence, often at the hands of an intimate partner.

This warning comes as the United Nations marks 30 years since the adoption of the Beijing Platform for Action, a global roadmap for achieving gender equality and women’s rights, which identified the elimination of violence against women as a core priority.

UN Women further explained that the current funding crisis coincides with a rising wave of backlash against women’s rights in about a quarter of the world’s countries, forcing many feminist organizations to focus solely on providing essential services rather than pursuing long-term advocacy and cumulative work that drives real change.

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ANHA