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differences over 10 years were larger than differences between older cohorts of over 50 years of age and younger cohorts of 15-29 years. This is the case of some Eastern and Western European countries. For example, regarding attitudes towards women and men as political leaders in 2005, there were no significant differences between older and younger cohorts in Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Finland or Sweden, while all of those countries had shown increased support for gender equality between 1995 and 2005. 111. States should ensure equal opportunities for women to contribute to society as leaders, managers and decision makers, granting them access to positions of power equal to that of men in all sectors of public life. As part of these efforts, it is important to address public views and values regarding sexism or other forms of discrimination, including through creative communication and education campaigns, and monitor these on a regular basis as indicators of social development. 3.
Gender-based violence 112. An estimated one in three women worldwide report that they have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse, mostly at the hands of an intimate partner, making this form of violence against women and girls one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violations worldwide. 61 113. The first multi-country study (2005) estimating the extent of domestic violence against women, found that the proportion of adult women who had ever suffered physical violence by a male partner ranged widely across the 10 countries studied, from 13 per cent to 61 per cent. 62 The proportion of women who had experienced severe physical violence by a male partner, defined as “being hit with a fist, kicked, dragged, threatened with a weapon or having a weapon used against her�, ranged from 4 per cent to 49 per cent, with most countries falling between 13 per cent and 26 per cent. 63 The first global and regional prevalence estimates (2013) of sexual and physical intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence showed that 30 per cent of women worldwide aged 15 and older who had ever had a partner had experienced some form of intimate partner violence, with as many as 38 per cent of women in some regions having experienced such violence. 64 114. Metrics to measure non-partner sexual violence are less clearly defined, highlighting a general lack of data on that form of violence. Current global estimates are that 7 per cent of women have experienced sexual violence by someone other than an intimate partner. Combined estimates show that 36 per cent of women globally have experienced either intimate partner violence, non-intimate partner violence, or both forms of gender-based violence. 65 115. A recent (2013) United Nations multi-country study on men and violence in Asia and the Pacific found that nearly half of the 10,000 men interviewed reported using physical and/or sexual violence against a female partner; across the sites, the
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WHO, Global and Regional Estimates of Violence against Women: Prevalence and Health Effects of Intimate Partner Violence and Non-Partner Sexual Violence (Geneva, 2013). C. Garcia-Moreno and others, WHO Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women (see footnote 12 above). Ibid. WHO, Global and Regional Estimates of Violence against Women. Ibid.
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