Freedom from Violence and the Law: A Global Perspective in Light of the Chinese Domestic Violence Law, 2015

UN Women discusses concrete actions to eliminate violence against women and it is a centerpiece of the global development agenda for the future. This article reviews constitutional and legislative developments around violence against women, and how a human rights framework can address this issue. While there has been major progress in establishing the right of women to live free of violence in both international and national law in the past decade, the main issues of future reform are the weak implementation of these laws and unreported violence. Furthermore, reform is required related to the monitoring and evaluation of legislation and changes to the system as this information is scarce. The author also suggests that women’s groups and civil society can bring about this reform and monitoring implementation.