Violence Against Women Not Included in Peace Index
The first-ever study ranking countries according to their level of peacefulness, the Global Peace Index (GPI), was recently published by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Grounded in the notion that there is more to the concept of peace than merely an absence of war, the index uses 24 indicators to measure, instead, peace as an "absence of violence." Among the indicators are numbers of internal and external wars, political instability, access to weapons and military expenditure.
Yet, despite such broad ranging considerations, the Index has a fatal flaw. As noted in the Christian Science Monitor and Women's E-News, it fails to include the most prevalent form of global violence: violence against women and children, which often occurs under cover of impunity and within their own families...read more
