Reflections from the University of Miami’s Human Rights in the Americas Symposium
By Saba Ghori, Center for Global Rights for Women at BWJP In November 2025, I had the privilege of representing…
One in Three Women. A Pandemic We Still Refuse to Confront.
“Justice isn't just punishment for the accused. It's systematic accountability. It's institutions admitting when they've failed sexual assault survivors, when negligence caused harm, and then having the courage to change...This moment began with Epstein’s crimes, but it’s going to be remembered for survivors demanding justice, demanding truth, demanding accountability." ---Jess Michaels, Survivor
Gender-based violence cuts across borders and the global norm is the lack of accountability for male violence against women. An estimated 840 million women globally—one out of every three—have experienced sexual or intimate partner violence in their lifetime according to a new report from the World Health Organization. “Violence against women is one of humanity’s oldest and most pervasive injustices, yet still one of the least acted upon,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “No society can call itself fair, safe or healthy while half its population lives in fear.”
Fear indeed—and we cannot overlook the daily realities that create this justified fear: domestic violence, child sexual abuse by family members, sexual assault, stalking, date rape, forced marriages, so-called honor killings, female genital cutting, and more. The sex trafficking of children, such as endured by the Epstein survivors, is horrific—and far from rare. For decades we have known that violence against women and girls is a global pandemic.
The WHO statistics are not shocking to those of us who work in this field. What remains alarming is the persistent lack of political will among those with real power to change this. It is the lawmakers in Turkey who reject a treaty that mandates safety and justice reforms. It is the Tanzanian tribal chief selecting a 12-year-old “bride.” It is powerful men in the United States who dismiss child sex-trafficking victims’ claims as a hoax. It is the Filipino law enforcement official who demands a girl undress in his office to show “evidence” of rape. It is the Minneapolis police officer who fails to use the tools he has to stop a violent offender—until a woman is murdered.
As Rachel Louise Snyder recently wrote in The New York Times, “An estimated one in 20 women in the United States gets pregnant from rape or sexual coercion… two-thirds of the women who became pregnant from rape were injured during their assaults.” Gender-related killings of women, she noted, “continue to be accepted, tolerated or justified—with impunity as the norm.”
Until murder and all male violence against women and girls result in real accountability, this ancient story will not end.
The good news is that we have the tools to end this violence. We know what works. We simply do not prioritize it. or invest in programs that address the root causes.
We already know the laws, policies, and practices that work. The legal and systemic reforms that women have demanded and won over the last five decades can hold violent abusers accountable and transform communities. We know that where strong laws exist and officials enforce them, women and girls are safer. We know that when law enforcement, child protection agencies, justice systems, and women’s advocacy groups coordinate to track the most dangerous offenders, they can stop them.
We also know that when local leaders—including faith leaders and men and boys—are engaged and educated about the harmful consequences of violence, social norms begin to shift. When they understand that ending violence benefits not only women and girls but also families and communities, the power dynamics at the root of this problem can finally be questioned.
Above all, we know that when we believe women and girls, we can prevent violence. When we listen to survivors and allow their voices to guide reforms, we build systems that protect them rather than fail them.
Justice. Truth. Accountability This is what we work to achieve every day at the Battered Women’s Justice Project. In our local and global work, we listen to survivors and center their experiences in legal reform efforts. Based on decades of tested strategies, we help communities craft solutions to address violence against women and girls that are rooted in local realities and informed by what survivors say hurt or helped them.
The annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence—an international campaign that began on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10th, Human Rights Day—is a global call to action. It reminds us that gender-based violence remains a devastating human rights violation in every corner of the world, including in our own neighborhoods.
This holiday season, I invite you to take a moment of silence for someone you know who has been affected by violence—and make a personal commitment to take action. As Jess Michaels says, “We are no longer whispers. We are one powerful voice, too loud to ignore, and we will never be silenced again.”