Madrid, Spain, 20 November 2025
Good morning to all of you – in the room and online. I’d like to start by thanking the Spanish Ministry of Health – and my dear friend Minister Garcia – for hosting the launch of this critical report.
We are here today to speak a painful, yet necessary, truth: violence against women and girls in the European Region is at crisis levels.
Our new WHO/Europe report reveals that almost 1 in 3 women and girls, 15 years and older, will experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. This is not just a justice or social issue; it is a profound and systemic public health emergency that demands an urgent, effective health sector response.
For millions of survivors, the health system is the first, and often the only, place they turn to for help. Yet, our data reveals a devastating failure: the health sector fails nearly 1 in 3 survivors. Political commitments to protect the health and well-being of women and girls are simply not translating into safe, accessible and life-saving care on the ground. Health systems are letting survivors down at their most vulnerable moment.
We are failing to offer the essential, time-sensitive package of care recommended by WHO.
Look at the policies of our 53 Member States:
- only 13% offer safe abortion services
- only 32% offer emergency contraception
- only 32% offer HIV post-exposure prophylaxis, and
- only 38% offer mental health assessments.
These services are not luxuries; they are fundamental, time-critical medical necessities following rape and sexual assault. Their absence is a clear failure of political will and leadership.
Worse still, nearly one third of countries still require health-care workers to report domestic or intimate partner violence to the police against the wishes of an adult survivor. WHO advises strongly against this practice. It breaches confidentiality, violates survivor autonomy, and actively deters women and girls from seeking the help they so desperately need. This must end.
We see glimmers of hope – 75% of countries have policies for training health professionals, and two-thirds offer basic, compassionate, non-judgmental first-line support. But this progress is undermined by a critical lack of clinical resources and the political courage to mandate the full package.
We know that survivors will use health services for conditions related to violence, even if they do not disclose that to health providers. That is why it is so important for health workers – across all levels of the health system – to learn about the different forms of violence, their health impacts and how to respond in a non-judgemental way. Simply hearing “I believe you and I am here to help” from a trusted health worker can go a long way in the healing process.
I’d like to commend Spain for its comprehensive, coordinated approach to ending violence against women. It provides clear clinical guidance for health workers on violence against women and girls, while also integrating violence prevention into core health policy. Spain demonstrates how health, justice and social systems can work together to deliver survivor-centred care.
My message to our Member States is this: move beyond lip service. The time for debate is over; we demand immediate action to save lives and restore dignity, by doing three things:
- Authorize the full package of essential services, now. This means ensuring national policies explicitly require the provision of the full WHO-recommended care, especially time-sensitive post-rape services and access to emergency contraception and safe abortion.
- Remove all barriers to care. Most urgently, eliminate mandatory reporting requirements that violate a survivor’s consent and autonomy. Instead, help them access the vital services they may need outside the health sector, and offer support for them to file a police report if they want to.
- Invest in implementation. Mobilize resources to ensure the more than half of our countries that lack these essential health services adopt them immediately.
Earlier today a survivor reminded us of what a health system built on dignity looks like. She spoke of the right to be safe, to have a voice and choice, and to be at the heart of the response.
This is the system we need to build. My final message to every politician, every health minister, and every health worker is clear: we can no longer be bystanders to the public health crisis of gender-based violence.
We have the knowledge, we have the standards, and now we need to summon the courage to translate commitments into funded action, making the health sector the true first responder that every survivor deserves.
Thank you.