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Executive summary

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, Moldova and Ukraine. The research was also conducted in Kosovo.

The OSCE-led survey included a quantitative and qualitative component 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.

With its comparable data, the OSCE-led survey will provide much-needed information that will help depict the current situation concerning VAWG in OSCE participating Sates, and it will also enable the planning and development of cross-regional initiatives and actions as well as local policies and services. In the long term, this will lead to better prevention of VAWG, as well as improved policies and services for victims of violence. The overarching goal of this study is to contribute to a reduction of violence against women.

What are the major findings?

The OSCE-led survey reveals a number of trends and findings about the prevalence of violence against women and girls, its impact and underlying social norms and stereotypes.

• Seventy per cent of women, or an estimated number of 16 million women have experienced some form of sexual harassment, stalking, intimate partner violence or non-partner violence (including psychological, physical or sexual violence) since the age of 15;

• Forty-five per cent of women, or approximately 10.2 million women have experienced sexual harassment, including harassment via the internet;

• Twenty-three per cent of women, or approximately 4.9 million women, have experienced intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence;

• Eighteen per cent of women or an estimated number of 4.4 million women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at the hands of a non-partner.

Psychological violence is the most widespread form of intimate partner violence reported in the survey, with 60% of women who have been in a relationship experiencing this from a partner.

The survey data suggests that beliefs in female subservience, spousal obedience and silence surrounding VAWG continue to persist in the region and that those women who hold such beliefs are more likely to say they have experienced violence.

SDG 5.2 Indicators

SDG Indicator 5.2.2: the proportion of women and girls aged 18–74 in the area covered by the survey subjected to sexual violence by a non-partner in the 12 months prior to the survey is 0.8%.

SDG Indicator 5.2.1: the proportion of women and girls aged 18–74 in the area covered by survey who have ever had a partner and who were subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence by a current or former intimate partner in the 12 months prior to the survey is 20%.

A detailed list of disaggregated data of the relevant SDG 5.2 indicators can be found in Annex 6.

Key conclusions

Based on the detailed survey findings, the OSCE has drafted a number of key conclusions that suggest ways to recognize and respond to violence against women. These conclusions build on the Istanbul Convention and recommendations by UN bodies.

• The scale of violence against women and girls in the area covered by the survey calls for enhanced efforts to implement legislation and improve action plans that will address all forms of violence experienced by women and girls.

• The survey clearly finds that all women, regardless of their economic or social status, can experience violence, but some groups of women are at a higher risk. These risks include being poor, economically dependent or having children.

• The characteristics and behaviour of perpetrators also need to be taken into consideration as possible risk factors contributing to intimate partner violence.

• Violence has a severe physical and psychological impact, and women in the surveyed locations suffer from health problems as a result of their experiences of violence.

• Based on the data gathered, it is clear that women do not report the vast majority of incidents to the police and that they rarely seek support from other institutions.

• Barriers to seeking help are rooted in attitudes that silence women and protect abusers and also in women’s lack of trust in the authorities to help and protect them.

• The data collected illustrates that a majority of women do not know what to do if they experience violence and that they are not aware of local specialized organizations offering support.

How will the data and findings be used? For each key finding, several possible action points are proposed to OSCE participating States and OSCE executive structures in Chapter 13. These action points will be further developed and used as a basis for future work in the OSCE region on VAWG. The collected data will be made available so that further analysis can be conducted on the basis of this research