Accountability Gap: Decades of Gender Equality Promises, Violence Rates Barely Shift
As 2025 ends, advocates point to an accountability gap at the heart of gender equality. Governments signed long lists of promises. Yet speakers at a recent global session said violence figures still refuse to fall in meaningful ways.
The United Nations Charter in 1945 opened with “We the peoples … “ and affirmed equal rights for men and women. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights followed in 1948. The UN treaty CEDAW in 1979 set legally binding expectations to end discrimination, with later UN processes also targeting gender-based violence.
Leaders later added more commitments. They backed action to eliminate violence against women at the UN General Assembly in 1993. The 1994 ICPD Programme of Action, and the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, also pressed governments to act. The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals then promised gender equality by 2030.
Editor’s Note: Speakers at the SHE & Rights session said the world still drifts off course. Shobha Shukla, SHE & Rights coordinator and host, said the annual decline in intimate partner and sexual violence since 2000 sits at 0.2%, which she described as unacceptable. She argued governments need stronger action that turns commitments into lived safety.
Dr Pam Rajput, a feminist and former chairperson of the Government of India’s High-Level Committee on the Status of Women, called for accountability. “Despite all the efforts over decades to end gender-based violence, the painful reality or truth is that we are far behind,” she said. She also called violence against women and girls a human rights violation that blocks sustainable development.
Rajput cited global scale figures. She said over 840 million women faced violence globally. She said conflict settings double the number. She said 316 million women faced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner in the past 12 months, and 263 million faced it from a non-intimate partner. She also cited more than 51,000 reported femicide cases.
Online Abuse Widens Accountability Gap in Public Life
Rajput said women in public roles still face violence. She said 73% of women journalists reported online violence, and 20% reported offline attack by anti-gender groups. She also pointed to a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association study that found 60% of women MPs surveyed in Asia-Pacific reported online gender-based violence.
The study’s findings, as cited in the session, included hate speech, disinformation, image-based abuse, and doxing. It also reported psychological violence against women parliamentarians and parliamentary staff. It reported sexual, economic, and physical violence, with higher rates among women under 40, minority women, and unmarried women.
Rajput argued structural factors keep the cycle going. She listed structural inequality, patriarchal norms, “normalisation” of violence, gender insensitivity in enforcement agencies, and under-investment in gender equality. She urged countries to implement UN Commission on the Status of Women agreed conclusions and political declarations.
The session also linked violence to health risks. Esther Asuquo, a gender and peace advocate with African Girls Empowerment Network in Nigeria, said gender-based violence increases HIV risk and other infections. She described a cycle of violence, stigma, and discrimination, driven by unequal power and harmful norms.
Speakers also raised period poverty as a barrier to equality. Angel Babirye, an Emerging Women Deliver leader from Uganda and president of AfriYAN ESA, said stigma and lack of safe menstrual products push some girls toward unsafe substitutes. She said those conditions can increase reproductive tract infections and compound vulnerability. She added: “Menstruation is normal,” and called for safe spaces, water, sanitation, hygiene, and private facilities for changing and disposal.
The SHE & Rights session brought together multiple partners, including CeHDI, Women Deliver Conference 2026, IPPF, ARROW, WGNRR, APCAT Media, and CNS. Speakers framed 2026 as a test of whether governments will shift from statements to enforcement, budgets, and local campaigns that the public can measure.
As 2025 closes, advocates say the world cannot outrun the accountability gap with new slogans. They want governments to prove progress in safer homes, safer streets, safer schools, and safer online spaces.
