Global Citizen supports V-Day, a global campaign to raise awareness about gender-based violence and empower women to rise up, dance and fight for their rights on Valentine’s day.

Gender-based violence is an alarming global phenomenon. 35% of women are victims of sexual violence, and up to 70% of women experience sexual, physical or emotional abuse in their lifetime.

That means that 1 in 3 women and girls worldwide, one billion, will experience violence in their lifetime. 

Millions of girls and women are victims of targeted violence every day, both in conflict-zones and in peaceful, developed countries.

In conflict zones, women’s bodies are used as a tactic for war and power politics. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, also known as the “rape capital of the world,” 48 women were raped every hour when conflict escalated between militiamen and Congolese soldiers. Rape displaces, disenfranchises and increases a woman’s susceptibility to further abuse.

Any form of violence creates vast social and health-related consequences, especially on a woman’s reproductive health. By depriving a woman of the ability to plan her pregnancies and protect herself from HIV/AIDS, she becomes highly vulnerable to discrimination and abuse.

Violence is also a major cause of poverty. It prevents women from pursuing an education, working, or earning the income they need to lift their families out of poverty.

When girls areeducated, harmful forms of violence such as child marriage and female genital mutilation are stopped, and such cultural practices are ended for future generations. However, when girls experience bullying or sexual assault in school, they are more likely to drop out and have less opportunities to work and live healthier, more prosperous lives.

Providing women with the necessary education, resources and job skills allows women to increase their opportunities in society and become financially independent. More importantly, it reduces women’s vulnerability to violence.

Let’s act together to call on governments and world leaders to prioritize women’s equality in the post-2015 development agenda, so that an end to gender-based violence becomes  reality.

Sign the petition in the top right of the screen today.