The United Nations body for gender equality and women’s empowerment, known as UN Women, said violence against women remained a widely neglected issue in Indonesia and around the world as it kick-started 16 days of activism against gender-based violence on Monday.

The 16 days of activism are an annual international civil society-led campaign initiated by the UN that aims to raise awareness and mobilize action to end all forms of violence against women and girls. It runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10, which is International Human Rights Day.

This year marks 24 years since the UN designated Nov. 25 International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The date was selected to honor the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were brutally murdered in 1960 by order of the country’s ruler.

Dwi Faiz, country representative officer in charge for UN Women Indonesia, said people seemed only to talk about violence against women during the 16 days of activism, even though it occurred every day.

“Even at the global level, international conferences that focus on violence against women don’t get as much attention as other forums, such as climate change,” she said in a discussion on Monday, as reported by Kompas.id.

More attention and effort both from policymakers and the public were necessary to make a significant step forward to end violence against women, Dwi went on to say.

“How come the violation of human rights and women’s rights and the fact that women carry most of the care work and also financial workload in households are not seen as huge problems?”

She added that many studies had shown that countries would suffer major economic losses if they failed to address issues related to gender-based violence seriously.

The global cost of violence against women is estimated to be at least US$ 1.5 trillion, with a world bank study finding that gender-based violence can cost some countries between 1.2 and 3.7 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP).

A 2009 study in Tanzania found that women experiencing violence earned 29 percent less than those who did not experience any abuse. This figure rose to 43 percent for women subject to harsher forms of violence.

Verania Andria, assistant representative for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Indonesia, said campaigns to stop gender-based violence had to involve everyone, not only women.

“We can work together with the youth or internet influencers to create campaigns. For example to educate the public about the government hotline to report gender-based violence, SAPA 129,” she said.

Gender-based violence remains a major problem in Indonesia. An annual report published by the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) earlier this year found that in 2023 there were 289,100 reports of gender-based violence across the archipelago.

The cases included online and physical sexual harassment, rape, forced abortion, forced eviction, dehumanizing treatments during police detention, instigated suicide and femicide.

Despite the staggering numbers, Komnas Perempuan said the data represented “the tip of the iceberg” on cases of violence against women, as it only represented cases where victims reported their abuse, as well as the work scope of partner institutions that participated in data collection.

-In Association with ANN