Social equity & human rights

Gender-Based Violence (GBV)

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Definition

Gender-based violence is violence that is directed against a person because of their gender or that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately. It includes acts inflicting physical, mental, or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion, and other deprivations of liberty, occurring in public or private life; discrimination and unequal power relations between women and men are its root causes.

References

UN WomenFAQs: Types of violence against women and girls (GBV defined as violence directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately; includes physical, mental, sexual harm, threats, coercion, deprivation of liberty)

authoritative definition

International Rescue CommitteeWhat is gender-based violence? (umbrella term rooted in unequal power; one-third of women experience violence in their lifetime)

scope and prevalence

Overview

What it means

GBV is an umbrella term covering intimate-partner violence, sexual violence, harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, trafficking, and socio-economic violence such as denial of resources. Globally, more than one in three women experience violence in their lifetime, with risks escalating in conflict and crisis settings.

How it is used

The term structures prevention and response programming in humanitarian and development work, national legislation, SDG target 5. 2 monitoring, and corporate due diligence on workplace and supply-chain safety.

Why it matters

GBV is both a human-rights violation and a barrier to every other development goal — health, education, economic participation — and climate stress and displacement are recognised amplifiers of risk.