Women’s Rights are Human Rights

The Jian Ghomeshi scandal pulled the issue of violence against women in Canada out from behind closed doors and into the public spotlight. It reminded us that in many places around the world, including Canada, human rights are still not recognized, respected or guaranteed. This Human Rights Day we thought it relevant to present some of the obstacles women around the world and in Canada continue to face.



Women sharing their campaign posters following training for women
electoral candidates.
Photo: Abantu/Ghana

• Globally, about one in three women will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.

• Violence causes more death and disability worldwide amongst women aged 15-44 than war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents combined.

• Women account for nearly two thirds of the world’s 780 million people who cannot read.

• Marital rape is not a prosecutable offence in at least 53 States.  

• On average, every six days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.

 • Half of all women in Canada have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.

• The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that sexual assault and partner violence costs Canadians $9 billion annually when all costs are considered. 

• More than 3300 women in Canada and their children sleep in shelters to escape abuse on any given night.



Skills training in Senegal. Photo: Héloïse Courribet-Chouinard

Crossroads works with our partners in eight countries to improve the ability of women and girls to speak out against violence, to seek access to justice, and to gain skills to support their livelihoods. But we’re also collaborating with an alliance of more than 100 women’s organizations from across Canada to raise awareness about women’s rights by calling for a leader’s debate in the lead up to the 2015 federal election (a debate that hasn’t occurred on this stage for 30 years now!). Up for Debate calls on all political parties to participate in a federal leaders’ debate and make meaningful commitments to change women’s lives for the better in Canada and abroad by ending violence against women, ending women’s economic inequality, and supporting women’s leadership and organizations.  Add your voice to the debate and help make women’s rights everybody’s business.