Violence Against Women and Girls – often shortened to VAWG – is defined by the United Nations as:
"Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."
It is an umbrella term used to describe the range of crimes that disproportionately affect women and girls. These include but are not limited to:
Whilst we use the term VAWG, we acknowledge that anyone of any gender, including boys and men, can be victims of these crimes. We also acknowledge that anyone of any gender, including women and girls, can perpetrate these crimes.