One in eight women worldwide have been sexually assaulted before the age of 18, says UNICEF

“If we include ‘non-contact’ forms of sexual violence, such as verbal abuse online, the number of girls and women affected rises to 650 million worldwide, or one in five,” she said. alarms Unicef.

More than 370 million girls and women around the world have been victims of rape or sexual assault during their childhood or adolescence, denounces Unicef ​​in an international report, Thursday October 10, on this violence of a “alarming scale”.

The United Nations Children’s Fund states that “one in eight women suffered “rape or sexual assault before the age of 18”according to a summary of his work.

And “If we include ‘non-contact’ forms of sexual violence, such as verbal abuse online, the number of girls and women affected rises to 650 million worldwide, or one in five”UNICEF is alarmed. For its director Catherine Russell, “Sexual violence against children is an unbearable attack on our collective conscience”.

These attacks and rapes “cause deep and lasting trauma, and are often inflicted by a trusted person, in environments where the child should feel safe”, denounces the UN official cited in the press release.

Unicef ​​is moved by “the alarming scale” of this violence “on a global scale”especially against adolescent girls. This sexual violence knows no geographic, cultural or economic boundaries.

Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest number of victims (79 million girls and young women affected, or 22% of its population), ahead of East and Southeast Asia (75 million, 8%). .

This is followed by 73 million victims in Central and South Asia (9% of the population), 68 million in Europe and North America (14%), 45 million in Latin America and the Caribbean (18%), 29 million in North Africa and the Middle East (15%) and six million in Oceania (34%).