Guidelines on producing statistics on violence against women: statistical surveys
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Guidelines on producing statistics on violence against women: statistical surveys
Author
UN
Date
2014Metadata
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The Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence against Women: Statistical Surveys
have been prepared to assist countries in assessing the scope, prevalence and incidence
of violence against women. These Guidelines respond to the need to provide methodological
advice regarding selection of topics, sources of data, relevant statistical classifications, outputs,
wording of questions and all other issues relevant for national statistical offices to conduct
statistical surveys on violence against women.
The publication was requested by the United Nations Statistical Commission at its fortieth
session, in 2009, to comply with United Nations General Assembly resolution 61/143 on
the intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, which requested
the Statistical Commission to develop a set of possible indicators to assist States in assessing
the scope, prevalence and incidence of violence against women. To assist in this work, the
Friends of the Chair of the Statistical Commission on indicators on violence against women1
was established by the Statistical Commission at its thirty-ninth session, in 2008. In 2009,
this group developed a list of core indicators for which data should be compiled through
population-based surveys. These indicators reflect the complex nature of violence against
women which can have psychological, physical, sexual and economic dimensions.
The publication aims to provide national statistical offices with detailed guidance on
how to collect, process, disseminate and analyse data on violence against women. It lays out
the role of statistical surveys in meeting policy objectives related to violence against women,
the essential features of these surveys, the steps required to plan, organize and execute these
surveys, the concepts that are essential for ensuring the reliable, valid and consistent measurement
of women’s experiences in accordance with core topics and a plan for data analysis and
dissemination. These Guidelines should be used in conjunction with other manuals, such as
the United Nations Statistics Division publications Designing Household Survey Samples:
Practical Guidelines (United Nations 2008) and Household Sample Surveys in Developing
and Transition Countries (United Nations 2005a) and Manual on victimization surveys
(UNODC and UNECE 2010), and others as they are referenced in the text.
The contribution of Ms. Holly Johnson, University of Ottawa, to the drafting of the
Guidelines is gratefully acknowledged. Appreciation is also extended to the members of the
Friends of the Chair of the Statistical Commission on indicators on violence against women
of the UN Statistical Commission, who conducted an in-depth technical review of proposed
indicators for measuring violence against women, reviewed the draft Guidelines and provided
valuable comments with respect to finalizing the publication. Lastly, gratitude is expressed
to Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen for her significant review of the final version of these
Guidelines.
The drafting of the Guidelines was partly financed by the World Bank.