Up to 70 per cent of women experience violence in their lifetime.
Between 500,000 to 2 million people are trafficked annually into situations including prostitution, forced labour, slavery or servitude, according to estimates. Women and girls account for about 80 per cent of the detected victims.
It is estimated that more than 130 million girls and women alive today have undergone Female Genital Mutilation mainly in Africa and some Middle Eastern countries.
The cost of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceeds $5.8 billion per year: $4.1 billion is for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly $1.8 billion.
Statistics such as these led the United Nations Secretary-General to launch a UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign in 2008, aiming to raise public awareness and increase political will and resources for preventing and ending all forms of violence against women and girls in all parts of the world.
The UNiTE campaign has called for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to 10 December (Human Rights Day)