How do women cope with family violence? Moving ahead in our understanding of international issues

Violence against women and girls is considered a major health and human rights issue. In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a declaration on the elimination of violence against women. Yet, although family violence has been recognised as a public health problem for almost a decade,1 the research on family violence has produced results that are difficult to integrate either conceptually or empirically.

The World Health Organisation's Violence and Injury Prevention Department plans to publish a report on Violence and Injury Prevention by the end of the year 2001. A chapter of the report will focus on violence against women by intimate partners. A description of the magnitude of the problem will include an analysis of women's response to abuse, the consequences of abuse for health and well being, as well as preventive and policy …