41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 United Nations Statistics Division Srdjan Mrkić Chief, Social Statistics Report on the Meeting of the Friends of the Chair Aguascalientes, Mexico, 9 – 11 December 2009

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010  UN General Assembly, in its resolution 62/133 of 18 December 2007 requested the UN Statistical Commission to undertake the work on identifying statistical indicators on violence against women  In response, the UN Statistical Commission at its 39 th session in February 2008 established the Friends of the Chair group  Membership of the group: Australia, Bangladesh, Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Ghana, Italy, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, and United States of America  Observers: all regional UN commissions, DAW, Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, ODC, WHO, UNIFEM  Chair: Mexico  Secretariat: UN Statistics Division Background

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010  During 2008 the Group worked on the draft of the initial report to the Statistical Commission  The report was submitted to the 40 th session of the Statistical Commission in February 2009  Based on extensive exchange among the members of the Group and previous work undertaken by UNSD, UNECE and DAW  Special consideration was attributed to the universal applicability of the proposed indicators, their relevance and accuracy and ease of interpretation Proceedings

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010  Physical violence – two sets of indicators  1. Total and age-specific rate of women subjected to physical violence in the last 12 months by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator(s) and frequency  2. Total and age-specific rate of women subjected to physical violence during lifetime by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator(s) and frequency Interim set of indicators

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010  Sexual violence – two sets of indicators  1. Total and age-specific rate of women subjected to sexual violence in the last 12 months by relationship to the perpetrator(s) and frequency  2. Total and age-specific rate of women subjected to sexual violence during lifetime by relationship to the perpetrator(s) and frequency Interim set of indicators

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010  Intimate partner violence – two sets of indicators  Total and age-specific rate of women subjected to sexual or physical violence by current or former intimate partner in the last 12 months by frequency  Total and age-specific rate of women subjected to sexual or physical violence by current or former intimate partner during lifetime by frequency Interim set of indicators

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010  Indicators in need of additional review Early marriage Female genital mutilation Femicide Psychological violence Economic violence Stalking Forced marriage Trafficking in women Assessing violence as a crime Interim set of indicators

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Recommendations of the Report  The Friends of the Chair concluded that additional work needs to be invested and asked the UN Statistical Commission to endorse further development of indicators while at the same time endorsing the proposed set of indicators as an interim one  Ultimate goal – establishing and adopting international standards for developing and implementing statistics on violence against women  UN Statistical Commission endorsed the recommendations and also requested enlargement of the Friends of the Chair group to be more representative of different regions of the world

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Activities in 2009  Based on the report the Friends of the Chair started the preparations for the meeting  The Group was enlarged accordingly  Extensive contributions were provided by the members and are all available at the UNSD Violence against Women webpage:  UN Statistics Division produced a methodological study of recent national and international surveys on violence against women to assess the feasibility of the interim set of indicators  UN Statistics Division developed an outline of the Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women, Part I: Statistical Survey

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 FoC meeting – venue and participation  The meeting took place in the headquarters of the Instituto Nacional de Geografia e Estadistica of Mexico, in Aguascalientes, from 9 – 11 December 2009  Chaired by Mexico, Bulgaria and UN Statistics Division  Rapporteur: United States  Attended by members and observers from: Australia, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, United States, UN Economic Commission for Europe, UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, UN Division for Advancement of Women, UN Statistics Division and WHO

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 FoC meeting – Purpose  Three major expected outcomes Establishing the list of recommended indicators, irrespective of source of statistics Establishing the list of indicators for statistical surveys on violence against women, including their detailed content and dimensions Laying down the future work on developing international statistical standards for conducting statistics surveys on violence against women

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  The meeting discussed in details all possible indicators in the light of statistical data collection that needs to be put in place  For indicators on physical violence, for example, the meeting concluded that It is preferable to have a list of violent acts rather then definitions The list should not be exhaustive and closed-ended Wording of the question is crucial Severity of violence should be assessed separately from the act of violence itself Frequency – how to measure it Relationship to perpetrator – of ultimate importance – requires carefully developed list Reporting violence – always part of the question

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  Two sets of indicators on sexual violence from the interim set – percentage of women suffering sexual violence in lifetime and in the past 12 months – are essential for overall assessment on violence against women  The same approach as for the two sets on physical violence related to the relationship to the perpetrator and frequency apply  As for the two sets on indicators on intimate partner violence from the interim set their purpose is primarily for dissemination purposes as they do not require additional collection of statistics but require additional data processing of core indicators on physical and sexual violence and their perpetrators

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  In addition a set of indicators on psychological violence – total and age specific rate of women subjected to psychological violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner – is added to the list of core statistical indicators on violence against women Humiliation Emotional violence Controlling behavior

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  Another set of indicators on economic violence – total and age specific rate of women subjected to economic violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner – is added to the list of core statistical indicators on violence against women Denying access to financial resources Denying access to property or durable goods Deliberate non-compliance of the intimate partner regarding economic responsibilities such as alimony Denying access to labor market, health care and education Denying participation in decision-making relevant to economic status

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  Finally, female genital mutilation – more precisely total and age specific rate of women subjected to female genital mutilation – is added to the list of core statistical indicators on violence against women given its extreme and life-lasting consequences  However, violence against women surveys are not the instruments of choice for collecting these statistics – but should be always incorporated in demographic and health surveys

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  Therefore, the list of core statistical topics for surveys on violence against women consists of  Total and age specific rate of women subjected to physical violence in the last 12 months by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency  Total and age specific rate of women subjected to physical violence during lifetime by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency  Total and age specific rate of women subjected to sexual violence in the last 12 months by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency  Total and age specific rate of women subjected to sexual violence during lifetime by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency  Total and age specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by current or former intimate partner in the last 12 months by frequency  Total and age specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by current or former intimate partner during lifetime by frequency  Total and age specific rate of women subjected to psychological violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner  Total and age specific rate of women subjected to economic violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner  Total and age specific rate of women subjected to female genital mutilation

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  The following indicators are identified as additional statistical indicators for violence against women surveys Early marriage as a proxy – although universally accepted statistical threshold for early marriage remains elusive Forced marriage Trafficking of women Physical and sexual violence in childhood

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  Indicators that require further work Femicide and spousal homicide Stalking Recognizing violence as crime

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  Indicators not relevant Impact of sexual violence on sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS Discrimination and violence at work – included partially in the set of indicators on economic violence Hidden violence unreported to authorities – incorporated as a separate dimension in the sets on physical and sexual violence

41 st Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission Briefing on Statistical Indicators on Violence against Women: A Follow-up New York, 25 February 2010 Conclusions and recommendations  Future work programme The work of the FoC should be extended through 2015 The first phase should be concluded with the adoption of statistical standards for surveys on violence against women The second phase refers to focusing on administrative sources and their feasibility for generating statistics on violence against women