Statement: World Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

On Tuesday 25 November 2025, the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) joins the international community in observing the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Violence against women remains one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world, with over 840 million women, or one in three, being victims of physical or sexual violence at least once in their life.

Although violence against women and girls can take place in any country and setting, women and girls in the global south, or countries which are experiencing emergencies such as armed conflicts or climate-related disasters, are disproportionately affected by violence. The ACHRS therefore concerns itself with violence against women as this directly relates to our priorities such as women’s rights, youth rights, the right to think, and the right to opinion and expression. Furthermore, the aforementioned factors pose significant challenges in the Arab countries, leading to women experiencing disproportionate amounts of violence in the countries which are monitored by the ACHRS.

Although violence against women has traditionally been understood to be limited to sexual abuse and physical violence, the concept of violence is wider than that. This is evident in this year’s theme, which focuses on violence against women in the digital realm. Violence against women on online platforms is a growing concern, and such violence is often directed at women who are public figures such as journalists, human rights advocates, or political figures in order to intimidate and silence them.

Recent statistics by UN Women revealed the following:

1. 67% of women and girls have been victims of misinformation or defamation
2. 73% of female journalists reported experiencing some form of online violence
3. 90-95% of all online deepfakes are non-consensual pornographic images, with over 90% of these images depicting women, and
4. Over 300 million children were affected by online sexual exploitation and abuse in the past 12 months.

Online violence can take place in various ways, and below are some examples of how online violence can occur:

1. Cyber-harrassment
2. Image and video-based abuse
3. Hacking and stalking
4. Violent threats, and
5. Defamation and misinformation.

The ACHRS believes that the elimination of online violence is critical, not just because it infringes on the dignity of women and girls, but because of the threat of online violence leading to violence against women and girls in real life. Women in the Arab region are already subjected to high levels of violence, with the World Bank finding that over 40% of women in the region experienced physical or sexual abuse at least once in their lifetime. Despite this, no countries in the Arab region explicitly criminalize marital rape. Furthermore, despite violence being a wider concept than physical violence and sexual abuse, less than half of the Arab countries have laws protecting women from forms of violence apart from physical abuse, such as psychological and economic abuse, for example.

The ACHRS is therefore calling on all states, especially those in the Arab region, to do the following:

1. Implement programmes that lead to the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls
2. Continue to fund programmes whose aims are to end violence against women and girls
3. Create, enforce, and strengthen laws and policies that empower and protect women and girls
4. Create and/or strengthen legal and social services for the victims of violence, and
5. Collaborate with the creators of online platforms in order to eliminate the impunity of perpetrators and to establish best practices for users on their platforms.

The ACHRS remains committed to bringing attention to the various ways in which women and girls experience violence in order to bring about an end to that violence. The ACHRS also remains committed to continuing with the work that we do in our various programmes which aims to help women and girls reach their full potential, both as individuals and collectively.

Read more about the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the consecutive 16-day UNITE campaign on the UN website.