International Women’s Day - March 8, 2007

Gender-Based Violence

USAID works to eliminate gender-based violence and raise awareness about the violence that women and girls face worldwide.  Unmet need for family planning, HIV/AIDS, maternal morbidity, poverty, women’s vulnerability in armed conflict, harmful traditional practices, and other challenges to human rights jeopardize a woman's health and well-being and weakens her reproductive health.

Success Stories

• Paralegal Manual Helps Communities [PDF, 87KB]
  The number of cases involving domestic violence, sexual crime, and murder of women continues to rise in Villa Nueva, a suburb of Guatemala City, but few are reported or investigated. Under the leadership of Vilma Dinora Morales, a family therapist, the USAID-supported Women’s Legal Rights Initiative is increasing awareness of women’s legal rights and creating resources to help victims of violence.

• Protecting Women's Legal Rights [PDF, 77KB]
  A USAID-supported program, the Women’s Legal Rights Initiative, has successfully integrated coursework on domestic violence, trafficking in persons, and gender-sensitivity into the existing curriculum of the Magistrates School, which trains Albania’s future judges and prosecutors, exposing them for the first time to these issues.