Nearly one in three women worldwide is affected by domestic abuse or sexual violence by a partner, according to a recent report by the World Health Organization.
The incidence of abuse was highest in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, at nearly four in ten women. In Latin and South America, the rate was 30%, followed by 25% in Europe and Asia and 23% in North America.
The report focused on women over the age of 15 and included data from 86 countries, drawing on studies from the last three decades.
Legislation varies on whether sexual assault and domestic violence is a criminal act, and according to the United Nations, 600 million women live in places where it is not.
Nearly four in ten women killed die at the hands of an intimate partner.
Erin Delmore