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OSCE-led Survey on violence against women: Well-being and Safety of Women

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1. Why is the OSCE-led survey needed?

What is this report about?

This report presents the cross-regional, comparable findings of the OSCE-led Survey on the Well-being and Safety of Women, which was implemented in 2018 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, Moldova3 and Ukraine .The research was also conducted in Kosovo.

The OSCE-led survey included quantitative and qualitative components and was undertaken with the goal of providing comparable data on different forms of violence women experience in their childhood and throughout the course of their lives. The research examined violence that women experience in conflict and non-conflict settings, as well as the impact violence has on women, including its lasting consequences. Questions on norms and attitudes connected to violence against women were asked to better understand the underlying causes of violence.

The area covered by this research is diverse and has different historical, social and economic contexts. Rather than focusing on the findings from particular locations, the report aims to provide an overview of women’s experiences and to highlight the issues – often similar – that persist and continue to hamper the well-being and safety of women throughout the area covered by the research.

Why is it important?

Violence against women is a violation of the rights and fundamental freedoms of women and a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men and women.6 Identifying the scale of the problem is a first step to tackling it at its root.

The lack of comparable data on violence against women has limited the ability of key actors to develop cross-regional initiatives aimed at improving policies and measures on the prevention of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and the protection of victims.

Since the OSCE-led survey is based on the methodology used by the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) for its EU-wide survey on violence against women, which was published in in 20147 , the data collected in the area covered by this research is comparable to the data collected by the FRA survey. Together, the two surveys cover 35 OSCE participating States.