EULEX’s gender-based violence Lead Monitor, Chiara Tagliani explains the various forms that gender-based violence can take.

“When we talk about gender-based violence we refer to any act that results or may result in physical, sexual, psychological or even economic harm or suffering, including just the threat of such acts. It can therefore cover everything from forced early marriages to genital mutilation, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or verbal abuse, or any form of domestic violence, exploitation, and even forms of legal discrimination, for example when we deal with inheritance rights. It is really an umbrella term that relates to any harm that can be perpetrated again a person’s will as a result of unequal power relationships between genders, whereby one gender is seen in a subordinate position compared to the other one. The victim’s gender becomes the driving motive for the acts of violence,” said Tagliani.