Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a pervasive global phenomenon, but is oft en a politically sensitive and unacknowledged issue. It has serious consequences for the physical, reproductive, and psychological health and social well-being of individuals. It also refl ects and reinforces inequalities between men and women. SGBV is increasingly regarded as an impediment to the economic and social development of states.

Policy and research dealing with the relationship between women and firearms usually stress the role of women as victims. Of the estimated 66,000 annual homicides of women committed each year, roughly 40 percent involve firearms. Guns are even more commonly used to injure, intimidate, and coerce women.

Although some women own and use guns, policy and research on firearms tend to focus on the role of and effects on men.

Almost one-half of Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence, including forced sexual initiation. Much of the violence is barely acknowledged, let alone investigated and prosecuted. Extreme and even fatal acts of violence—targeting poor women in particular—are common enough to be considered unremarkable, a non-issue for the media, the political class, the police, and by extension, the Kenyan state.

Peace without Security: Violence against Women and Girls in Liberia analyses violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Liberia. First, it examines the extent to which women and girls in Liberia are victims of crimes and violence in general. It then focuses specifically on the patterns and characteristics of sexual and domestic violence. These latter forms of abuse, categorized as genderbased violence (GBV)3 because the victims are targeted on the basis of their gender, mainly affect females.

Rates of femicide—acts of homicide in which the victim is a woman or a girl—are significantly higher in countries and territories affected by high or very high overall homicide rates. With a rate of 12.0 per 100,000 people, El Salvador is the country with the highest femicide rate, followed by Jamaica (10.9), Guatemala (9.7), and South Africa (9.6) (2012).

Sound and timely gender-relevant data is key for adequately and comprehensively addressing armed violence. Global databases have the potential to highlight relevant gendered dynamics, but currently lack crucial information related to the sex and gender of victims as well as the context of the violent events monitored. Gender Counts: Assessing Global Armed Violence Datasets, a Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey, highlights these knowledge gaps and indicates ways towards filling them.