In no country in the world are women safe from gender violence.

• In the U.S., a woman is raped every six minutes, a woman is battered every 15 seconds, 700,000 women are sexually assaulted annually — 14.8 percent of them are raped before the age of 17.

• Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women ages 16 to 44. It accounts for more death and ill health than cancer or traffic accidents.

• In South Africa, more women are shot at home in acts of domestic violence than are shot by strangers on the streets or by intruders.

• The Russian government estimates relatives killed 14,000 women in 1999. Yet the country still has no law specifically addressing domestic violence.

• In India, more than 7,000 women will be murdered by their families and in-laws in disputes over dowries.• In Peru, a study of 12- to 16-year-old girls giving birth found that 90 percent of them were pregnant from rape, often incest.

• In Bangladesh, 200 women this year will be horribly disfigured when their spurned husbands or suitors burn them with acid.

• This year, more than 15,000 women will be sold into sexual slavery in China.