With messages of support and encouragement, several distinguished guests from the foreign diplomatic corps participated in the event, representing the strong support of our international development partners in combating gender-based violence. The conference emphasized once again that the issue of violence is no longer a private matter, but a problem that concerns each of us.
Violence against girls and women is a form of discrimination and a violation of fundamental human rights. It is both a cause and a consequence of the inequalities between women and men that have been perpetuated over time. Violence against women occurs everywhere: at home, in public, in any society and country, regardless of economic and social context.
Domestic violence is a complex phenomenon that encompasses acts of physical, sexual, psychological, or economic violence occurring within families or domestic units, or between former or current spouses or partners, regardless of whether the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim.
In Moldova, as in many other countries in the region and around the world, violence is rooted in deep-seated stereotypes or beliefs about the roles of women and men in families and society: 27.7% of men and 17.5% of women believe that a woman should tolerate violence to keep her family, 41.1% of men and 19.1% of women support the idea that there are moments when a woman deserves to be beaten, and 45% of women think that “violence against women is often provoked by the victim,” while nearly 40% of men believe that if a woman has been raped, she must have done something to provoke the assault (statistical data from the OSCE study "Women's Well-being and Safety," conducted on a sample of 1,802 women aged 18 to 74, 2019).
It is worth mentioning that the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova ratified the Istanbul Convention on October 14 of this year.
