violence against women

• Afghanistan
• Austria

The brutal murder of a 13-year-old girl in Austria is at the center of a political debate on deportations to Afghanistan. Rights groups have accused the government of instrumentalizing the crime.

• Pakistan
• Afghanistan
• Spain

If one story can encompass within itself the atrocities of war and what it does to people, it’s Shola Rashid’s story. Living currently as a refugee in Spain, the Afghan woman tells her tale of escape and the horrors of travelling irregularly as a woman.

• Italy

UNICEF and Italy's National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (NIHMP/INMP) have signed an agreement to boost safeguarding of the health of minors, women and families from the migrant community.

• Libya

There are growing calls for the release of five girls being held in a government-run migrant detention center in Libya. One of the girls told the Associated Press that all of them had been subjected to sexual abuse.

• Bangladesh
• Iran
• Malawi

IOM UK recently set up an online conference to showcase migrant women's resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference came a week after International Women's Day, and featured five women who had migrated to the UK from various parts of the world.

• Italy

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Italian National Institute for Health, Migration and Poverty (INMP) launched the Women's Health and Protection Service in Rome. The service is a space for reception, information and prevention dedicated to the Italian and migrant women most in need of healthcare and psychological assistance.

• Spain

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child considers Spain responsible for violating the rights of a migrant minor who was forced to undress and undergo invasive medical examinations to determine her age.

• Italy

The association D.i.Re (Donne in rete contro la violenza, or women network against violence) and the UN refugee agency have presented a series of proposals to improve the response provided by Italy's anti-violence system to female migrants and asylum seekers. The organizations stressed that these women remain largely "invisible" within the Italian anti-violence system.

• Greece

A three-year-old Afghan girl is presumed to have been sexually assaulted in the Kara Tepe tent camp for migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos. Doctors who examined the child reportedly said that her injuries may have been the result of rape.

• Germany

A rights group found evidence of 2,000 women, including some 200 minors, in Germany last year who underwent female genital mutilation in the past and were in need of treatment, calling that figure the tip of an iceberg.

• Bangladesh
• Zimbabwe
• Venezuela

The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is driving up levels of violence against refugee women and girls, the UN refugee agency has warned.

• Italy

The agencies IOM, UNHCR, and UNICEF in Italy have launched a guide for front-line workers who provide support to migrant and refugee survivors of gender violence. The guide is adapted to the Italian migratory context.