Gender-based violence (GBV) by definition It can include violence against women, domestic violence against women, men or children living in the same domestic unit.

Gender-based violence threatens a person's physical and psychological integrity. Everyone has the right to feel safe and secure, and where this is not present, people's ability to function in the family, community and society is likely to be impaired, as self-realisation and development are affected.

The United Nations defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life."