Freedom cannot exist where violence rules. Violence does not only harm its direct victims — it silences communities, paralyzes economies, and forces millions of people to shrink their lives around the constant threat of harm. Every person who lives under the shadow of violence is a person whose freedom has already been stolen, whether or not they have ever been touched by it.

Did You Know?

• Violence costs the global economy an estimated $17.5 trillion annually — approximately 13% of global GDP — when direct costs, economic ripple effects, and containment spending are combined. This staggering figure represents resources permanently diverted from education, healthcare, poverty reduction, and the investment in human potential that freedom ultimately requires to mean anything. (Institute for Economics and Peace, Global Peace Index, 2023)
• The burden of violence falls most heavily on the world’s poorest and most marginalized communities. Homicide rates in low- and middle-income countries are significantly higher than in wealthy nations, with Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa carrying disproportionate shares of global violent deaths. Violence concentrates where poverty, inequality, weak institutions, and exclusion converge — making its reduction inseparable from the broader project of human freedom. (UNODC Global Study on Homicide, 2023)
• Women and children experience violence in profoundly distinctive and underreported ways. Globally, 1 in 3 women has experienced physical or sexual violence — most often from an intimate partner within the home — while an estimated 1 billion children experience physical, sexual, or emotional violence or neglect every year, with lifelong consequences for their health, development, and capacity to live freely and fully. (WHO, 2021 / UNICEF)
• Violence is not random — it is preventable. Evidence-based violence prevention programs combining community intervention, economic opportunity, trauma support, and institutional reform have demonstrated measurable, sustained reductions in violence across diverse settings in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The WHO and UN have formally recognized violence prevention as a global public health and human rights priority, affirming that reducing violence is a matter of political will, not inevitable fate. (WHO Global Status Report on Violence Prevention / United Nations)