The most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of
women in the world.

Latest items for LRW-PRACTICE-2

April 1, 2025, 8:12 p.m.
Countries: Ukraine
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Often, the victims are left suicidal and fearful of telling anyone about the abuse they endured due to the crippling stigma and shame surrounding rape. This means the true scale of wartime sexual violence in Ukraine may never be known" (para 7). "For many women, the trauma that they have endured - and the stigma surrounding rape in a conservative nation like Ukraine - means that they will never tell a soul what happened to them, let alone report it to the authorities" (para 30). "'She showed me her injuries and the bruises on her body,' Ms Gorbunova says. 'It has stuck with me ever since - she said she...more
March 28, 2025, 6:01 p.m.
Countries: South Korea
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"The 33-year-old woman had attempted suicide twice: the yearslong investigations and trials had been that stressful. Even then, she said she had only reported a fraction of the sexual abuse she’d suffered, fearing she might be punished for false accusations if her allegations were dismissed under South Korea’s strict rape law. 'This is the painful reality faced by victims on the ground. Yet these politicians only keep talking about so-called false sex crime accusers as a winning strategy for elections,' said the woman, who requested not to be named for fear of public shaming. The politicians she refers to are now in charge. President Yoon Suk-yeol came to power in...more
March 28, 2025, 5:46 p.m.
Countries: North Korea
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Equally troubling, some 70 percent of respondents had never heard of North Korea’s Women’s Rights Protection Law (a 2010 law that establishes basic protections and rights for women), and only 16.7 percent had ever received education about women’s rights" (para 5). "While North Korea does have a petition system that allows women to voice complaints about their circumstances – including corruption and sex crimes – the survey found that most respondents believe the system is useless, and some even did not know where to file petitions" (para 15).
March 28, 2025, 2:19 p.m.
Countries: Peru
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"It notes with concern… That young women are unable to access the courts or to personally report cases of gender-based violence against women without an adult present, and that indigenous women, rural women, women land right defenders, women with disabilities and lesbian, bisexual and transgender women and intersex persons are often harassed and denied services when seeking to access justice" (5).
March 27, 2025, 7:22 p.m.
Countries: Cambodia
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"There are exactly 6 shelters in Cambodia as of July 2019, all run by NGOs and collectively serving the needs of an estimated 200,000 women who suffer physical and sexual violence annually" (5).
March 26, 2025, 4:56 p.m.
Countries: D R Congo
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Women who venture to the army outposts to complain about insecurity take immense risks. Soldiers deployed in conflict zones act with almost complete impunity, frequently targeting women and girls with sexual violence. The UN reported that, in 2021, the military and police were responsible for about 29 percent of conflict-related sexual violence in Congo. 'They say Congo is a rape capital,' says Justine Masika, who leads an association in Goma that advocates for victims of gender-based violence. 'But I say the women of Congo are strong because they don’t remain victims. They become actors of change'" (para 16-17).
March 21, 2025, 5:08 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Three-quarters of respondents to the survey of rape and sexual assault survivors said their mental health was damaged 'as a direct result of what police did, or failed to do, in their case' and only four in 10 said they would report again, according to researchers. But a radical overhaul of the way the criminal justice system deals with rape since 2021 is showing the first 'green shoots' of improving victims’ experience of the criminal justice system, with respondents after July last year 8% less likely to report damage to their mental health because of the police. Only two in five respondents agreed that policing is doing a good job...more
March 21, 2025, 4:44 p.m.
Countries: Central African Rep
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Like most women and girls, Awa did not alert the police. 'The white soldiers are above the law,' says Sandrine*, Awa’s grandmother. 'Nobody will punish them for what they did.' Awa did not seek or receive any medical attention. Her mother and grandmother, like many women in CAR, feared the stigma that follows speaking up about sexual violence. 'If she goes to the hospital, she may meet someone who could judge her or even tell other people about what happened to her,' says Sandrine. 'It wouldn’t be nice for her to be stigmatised'" (para 17-19).
March 21, 2025, 3:28 p.m.
Countries: Switzerland
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Only eight percent of women surveyed who experienced sexual violence reported the assault to the police" (2).
March 21, 2025, 3:12 p.m.
Countries: Finland
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Annually around 50,000 women in Finland experience sexual violence. However, only around 1,500 sexual crimes against adult women are reported to the police. Less than 10% of all rapes are reported to the police and of those reported, around 30% result in a trial. There are currently eight Sexual Assault Support Centres in operation, while the recommended number is 13. The centres assist victims aged 16 and over, and whose experience of sexual violence has occurred within the last one month" (6). "The HRC [Human Rights Committee] also noted the insufficient number of shelters and rape crisis centres, especially in remote rural areas" (6). "In Finland, support services for survivors...more
March 20, 2025, 1:55 p.m.
Countries: Mauritania
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Unfortunately, the government’s prosecution for zina and its failure to ensure access to justice, effective remedies, and care facilities for sexual violence survivors violates several human right laws and conventions including Article 2 of the CEDAW Convention, which obliges states to remove all national penal provisions that discriminate against women. As a response to this, in its reply to the List of issues raised by the committee in 2014, the government of Mauritania has enacted various awareness-raising campaigns to encourage women and girls who were victims of rape to file a formal complaint, and it has provided in-service training for judges and law officers to ensure there is a clear...more
March 19, 2025, 11:07 p.m.
Countries: Uganda
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"More recently, in response to rising cases of violence during the lockdown imposed by the corona virus preventive measures, the Uganda Police Force with support from UN Women established a dedicated toll-free hotline for reporting and responding to cases of violence against women and girls" (2).
March 19, 2025, 10:26 p.m.
Countries: Canada
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

Table 12, titled "Violent victimization in the past 12 months, by type of victimization, gender of victim, and selected incident characteristic, provinces, 2018," shows that 5% of sexual assault cases with female victims are reported to police. 93.4% of such cases are not reported (para 43). Note that this data comes from a survey, not police records. 95% confidence intervals for each statistic are available in the table but are not listed here (ELW - CODER COMMENT).
March 19, 2025, 10:12 p.m.
Countries: Iraq
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2, NGOFW-PRACTICE-1

"The federal government has prevented NGOs from operating shelters, while making scant efforts to establish functioning government-run shelters" (6).
March 15, 2025, 11:45 a.m.
Countries: Lebanon
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"The Committee notes with concern the lack of gender-sensitive investigations, prosecutions and evidence-gathering procedures, and reports of judicial gender bias, which jeopardize women’s access to justice and effective remedies, in particular in cases of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence against women" (5). "[There are a] lack of victim support services, including the limited number of adequate shelters in the State party" (7). "The Committee welcomes the information provided by the delegation during the dialogue on the provision of health services to women victims of gender-based violence, including rape" (12).
March 14, 2025, 7:59 p.m.
Countries: Indonesia
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2, LRCM-PRACTICE-2

"[S]tigma against survivors of violence is still very high in Indonesia, where violence is still considered a disgrace for women and their families. This makes survivors reluctant to report cases and is more complicated if it occurs for WUD [women who use drugs], where the use of drugs is criminalized presenting additional obstacles in accessing justice" (12).
March 14, 2025, 4:48 p.m.
Countries: Venezuela
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2, DV-PRACTICE-2

"The telephone hot line 0800-Mujeres (0800-6853737) provides legal advice and general information especially designed for female victims of violence. In the period from 2014 to 2018, 42,240 calls were received. In 2019 and 2020, the service was affected by serious damage to the national electrical grid caused by terrorist activities and the unilateral coercive measures made it impossible to obtain spare parts. The service managed to recover in November 2020" (8). "Between 2015 and 2020,180 persons (65 women, 61 girls and 54 boys) sought protection and safety in shelters of the Ministry of People’s Power for Women and Gender Equality. These confidential and secure shelters provide temporary accommodation, protection, care...more
March 11, 2025, 5:10 p.m.
Countries: Iceland
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2, DV-PRACTICE-2

"Drífa Snædal, who is on the executive committee of the women’s strike and is a spokesperson for Stígamót, a counselling and education centre for sexual violence" (par. 16).
March 5, 2025, 8:35 p.m.
Countries: Ecuador
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"The Attorney General’s Office has 308 gender-competent prosecutors’ offices (235 multipurpose unit and 73 gender units) throughout the country. For its part, the Ministry of the Interior has 1,575 community policing units and 16 community surveillance units for the country. The Council of the Judiciary has 37 judicial units specializing in violence, covering 23 provinces and 49 cantons; five criminal law judicial units on violence against women, covering four provinces and nine cantons; 23 criminal multipurpose judicial units covering 13 provinces and 34 cantons and 107 multipurpose judicial units. In 2019, the Council of the Judiciary incorporated 111 new judges, reaching a total of 807 officials in specialized units, including...more
March 3, 2025, 5:06 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"‘So many women, and men, have broken down in my arms, telling me of the horrific ways they’ve been raped after being spiked. Often it’s something they recall only in flashbacks or are aware of because of injuries they’ve sustained. 'They don’t know if they’ve been filmed. They don’t know who did it. They could be drinking with them in the pub and wouldn’t realise. It’s utterly tormenting.’ One 18-year-old woman who turned to the charity for support last year had woken up naked on a bed in a strange room in South London, surrounded by used condoms – one was still inside her - and with no memory of...more
Feb. 28, 2025, 5:42 p.m.
Countries: Niger
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2, IIP-PRACTICE-1

"The precariousness of girls’ schooling is also due to a hostile school environment due to physical assaults by male students, teachers and also by those with malicious intent on the girls’ way to school. This is more common in rural areas where girls and their parents are afraid to report violence against girls, which is considered taboo" (8).
Feb. 26, 2025, 10:34 p.m.
Countries: South Africa
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2, DV-PRACTICE-2

"Launched in 2020, the Plan has led to some legal reforms and improved support for survivors of gender-based violence through one-stop care centres and the establishment of a national fund to address gender-based violence and femicide" (para 11).
Feb. 26, 2025, 10:15 p.m.
Countries: Kazakhstan
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Such legal provisions deny justice to survivors, because the survivor, rather than the state, is required to bear the burden of the criminal proceedings, including when it comes to the collection of evidence required to prove the circumstances of the crime. These provisions also give space to local law enforcement authorities to discourage women from filing such claims and to postpone the initiation of the investigation, anticipating in practice that one way or another, a woman is likely to withdraw her claim. Moreover, there is often also pressure from relatives or family members on the victim to withdraw her complaint, and local groups report there have often been situations where...more
Feb. 26, 2025, 8:40 p.m.
Countries: North Korea
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-1, LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Others have stated that the stigma surrounding the victims of sexual violence and harassment prevents women and girls from seeking redress. Survivors of sexual assault lack the language itself to describe what happened to them, an issue compounded by the lack of public sex education in the country" (par. 6).
Feb. 26, 2025, 8:27 p.m.
Countries: Dominican Republic
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Among the judgments analysed, the best results were obtained in cases in which the crime was committed in provinces that had a Unit for the Care of Victims of Domestic and Gender-based Violence and Rape of the Attorney General’s Office, an office of the National Institute of Forensic Science and interview centres for vulnerable persons, and in which support was provided by lawyers from the Ministry of Women" (7-8). "The emergency telephone helpline, which can be reached by dialling *212, 809 689-7212 or 809-200-7212, is available 24 hours a day, all year round. It was established in 2012 to provide assistance to and enable the rescue of women victims of...more
Feb. 20, 2025, 4:48 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2, DV-PRACTICE-2

"Women told the ECP how having a prostitute’s caution on their record also deterred them from reporting rape, domestic violence and other crimes" (para 12).
Feb. 20, 2025, 3:56 p.m.
Countries: Nigeria
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"Last year, Eseosa also opened a helpline called Ms Smart. The news quickly spread and in its first five months, counsellors received hundreds of calls from women seeking an abortion or help to escape domestic or sexual violence" (para 8). "'Before we refer women to our partners who help on sexual violence cases, we check if they are pregnant and ensure they are able to make informed decisions on their body autonomy,' says Eseosa" (para 8). "Zara and Faith did not have abortions. Both are 18. Both became pregnant as a result of rape and, after being rejected by their families, were promised a place to stay by the only...more
Feb. 19, 2025, 6:34 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-1, LRW-PRACTICE-2

"With tens of thousands of rape cases reported annually, India has earned the moniker 'the rape capital of the world'. It's not because India is an exception - many countries report equal or higher numbers of rapes. But critics say the world's largest democracy gets a bad name because of the way the victims and survivors are treated - they are stigmatised by the society, and often shamed by the police and judiciary too" (para 17-19).
Feb. 19, 2025, 6:02 p.m.
Countries: India
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"The study examined records from three Mumbai public hospitals from 2008 to 2017 and found that of 1,664 rape survivors, no rape cases were filed by police" (para 37).
Feb. 14, 2025, 7:07 p.m.
Countries: United Kingdom
Variables: LRW-PRACTICE-2

"We currently have 44 member Rape Crisis Centres, providing services in 54 locations. Rape Crisis Centres provide frontline specialist, independent and confidential services for women and girls of all ages who have experienced any form of sexual violence, at any time in their lives. Last year, Centres provided over 650,000 sessions of counselling, advocacy and support. Rape Crisis Centres are women-led and offer a range of services in women-only safe space. Over half our members also provide separate space and services for male sexual violence survivors" (1). "There are only 44 Rape Crisis Centres across the whole of England and Wales (down from 68 in 1984) serving approximately 4 million...more