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8.1 Defining Gender-Based Violence

Quick notes — start here

  • GBV is harm connected to gendered power, roles or expectations.
  • Forms include physical, sexual, psychological and economic harm.
  • It can occur in private, public or digital settings.
  • Coercive control matters even without visible injury.
  • Responsibility remains with the perpetrator.
  • Formal definition: Gender-based violence is harm connected to gendered power, discrimination or role expectations. Violence against women focuses on women; intimate-partner violence concerns current or former partners; domestic violence concerns specified domestic relationships.

Simple example: An illustrative partner controls all money, threatens consequences for leaving home and monitors communications. The absence of a visible injury does not establish the absence of abuse. This example shows how restrictions on resources and freedom can work together.

Remember this sentence: Gender-based violence is about harm and coercive power, not only visible injuries or where an incident occurs.

Check yourself: Why is 'it happened at home' a description of location rather than a complete explanation?

Detailed bullet notes and references

Plain-English explanation: Separate form, site and mechanism. Physical, sexual, psychological and economic harm describe forms; home, workplace and online spaces describe sites; coercive control describes a pattern of domination. Categories can overlap.

Critical point: Use the applicable legal definition when analysing an offence; social-science categories and statutes need not have identical boundaries. Explanations of risk never transfer responsibility from the perpetrator to the survivor.

Memory cue: FORM → SITE → CONTROL → HARM. This is a study aid, not a scholarly framework.

Source for the specific factual reference: WHO: Violence against women

💡

Distinguish: GBV is the broadest term; VAW focuses on women; domestic violence covers household relationships; IPV covers current / former partners. The victim is targeted because of gender.

Definition

  • Any harmful act directed at an individual based on their gender, rooted in unequal power relations between men and women; encompasses physical, sexual, psychological and economic harm, in public or private settings.
  • Distinguished from violence generally by its gendered motive / target selection.

International definitions and instruments

  • UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW, 1993): any act of gender-based violence causing or likely to cause physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering, including threats, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, in public or private life.
  • CEDAW General Recommendations 19 (1992) and 35 (2017): GBV is a form of discrimination; states have due-diligence obligations.
  • Regional instruments: Belém do Pará Convention (1994, Americas); Maputo Protocol (2003, Africa); Istanbul Convention (2011, Council of Europe).
  • GBV vs VAW vs domestic violence vs IPV: GBV includes violence against men and gender minorities based on gender norms; VAW focuses on women; domestic violence covers household relationships; IPV covers current / former partners.

Global data (cite with year) 🔎

  • WHO (2021): about 1 in 3 women globally experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime.
  • Latest global femicide estimate located: about 50,000 women and girls killed by intimate partners or family members in 2024, around 137 per day (UNODC/UN Women, released November 2025). Changes in country data availability mean this must not be interpreted as a proven fall from 2023's 51,100. Source.
  • Global violence prevalence: WHO/UN's 2023 estimates, released in November 2025, put lifetime exposure to partner violence or non-partner sexual violence at nearly one in three women—about 840 million. This is global, not a Pakistan rate. WHO release.

International days

  • 25 November — International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women; the 16 Days of Activism run to 10 December (Human Rights Day). The date honours the Mirabal sisters (Dominican Republic, 1960).

GBV in Pakistan — the current picture

  • High rates of domestic violence, honour-related killings, rape and increasingly cyber-harassment / online GBV, per HRCP and provincial commission annual reporting.
  • Under-reporting is a major, well-documented distortion of official statistics due to stigma, fear of retaliation and weak police response.
  • Evidence for CSS answers: consult the latest HRCP State of Human Rights in Pakistan report; record the publication year alongside statistics; explain how under-reporting affects interpretation. Data in 8.4.

🧪 Worked example — GBV, VAW, domestic violence and IPV in one scenario

  • Scenario: a husband beats his wife and controls her money after she takes a job.
  • IPV: violence by a current partner.
  • Domestic violence: violence in a household relationship (could also involve in-laws or siblings).
  • VAW: violence directed at women; this is VAW.
  • GBV: the broad umbrella — violence driven by gender norms, including against men who defy masculine norms and against gender minorities.
  • Structural link: law, police and family responses determine whether she can seek help.

📝 Extra notes

  • Instruments: DEVAW (1993), CEDAW GR 19 (1992) and 35 (2017), Belém do Pará (1994), Maputo Protocol (2003), Istanbul Convention (2011).
  • Due diligence: states must prevent, investigate, punish and provide remedies.
  • Calendar: 25 November (Mirabal sisters, 1960) to 10 December — 16 Days of Activism.

20-mark FPSC answer structure — 8.1

  • Definition and scope: Gender-based violence involves physical, sexual, psychological, economic or technology-mediated harm linked to gendered expectations or inequalities.
    • Developed analytical point 1: Differentiate GBV from violence against women and define overlapping but distinct categories.
    • Developed analytical point 2: Distinguish immediate acts, patterns of coercive control and institutional risk.
    • Developed analytical point 3: Identify home, workplace, school, transport and online settings with accurate examples.
    • Developed analytical point 4: Explain why surveys, police reports and health service counts measure different aspects of harm.
  • Pakistan application: Coercion by an intimate partner can involve financial control and online monitoring as well as assaults.
  • Critical limitation: Avoid treating one reported case as representative of all communities and do not presume every incident follows the same pattern.
  • Past-paper links: 2016 Q3; 2017 Q3; 2023 Q8; 2025 Q2. 8.PYQ — Forms, causes, laws, violence theories & prevention (2016–2026).
  • Conclusion: synthesise the cause–effect–response relation; do not finish with an unsupported generalisation.

✅ How to score

  • Open with the DEVAW definition, add one global data point with year, and one line on why the victim is targeted because of gender.

⚠️ Common mistakes

  • Using GBV and VAW as exact synonyms.
  • Quoting global figures without source and year.

❓ Active recall

  • Give the DEVAW definition in your own words.
  • Distinguish GBV, VAW, domestic violence and IPV.

Exam-ready answer — Defining Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence concerns harmful acts connected to gendered power, roles or expectations. Understanding it requires attention to coercion and unequal control, rather than defining violence only through visible physical injury.

Forms and settings

Violence may be physical, sexual, psychological or economic. Threats, isolation and control of resources can limit a person's choices even when no immediate injury is visible. Harm may occur within intimate relationships, at work, in public spaces or through digital communication. Location describes where violence occurs but does not by itself explain why it occurs.

Power and consequences

Gender norms can legitimise unequal authority and discourage disclosure. Economic dependence, fear and weak institutional responses may restrict opportunities to seek support. These conditions help explain vulnerability and persistence; they do not transfer responsibility to survivors or excuse perpetrators.

Social-science definitions help identify patterns, while legal analysis must use the applicable statutory elements. Different categories may overlap without having identical boundaries. An effective response consequently combines recognition of coercive practices with accessible protection, accountability and support.

A comprehensive understanding of GBV connects the act, its setting, the mechanism of control and its consequences, while preserving the dignity and choices of those affected.

Example and application

An illustrative partner controls all money, threatens consequences for leaving home and monitors communications. The absence of a visible injury does not establish the absence of abuse. This example shows how restrictions on resources and freedom can work together.

Conclusion

Gender-based violence is about harm and coercive power, not only visible injuries or where an incident occurs.