New international coalition launched to end violence against women and girls globally

• UK co-founds global ‘All In' coalition to prevent violence against women and girls.   
• Pioneering women from across the globe will be brought together to tackle the issue, as UK Foreign Secretary declares violence against women an emergency worldwide, as well as at home.  
• New UK investment to tackle cross-border online abuse announced.      

A major new global coalition is being launched today (Tuesday 2nd December 2025), bringing together pioneering women from across the world to tackle violence against women and girls.

It comes during the Sixteen Days of Global Activism against this issue which this year focuses on ending digital violence against women and girls.  Speaking at the event, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will say the ‘All In' panel is vital to end the scourge plaguing women and girls around the world, which is both a national and international emergency.   

The UK will use the coalition, which will be dedicated to accelerating political commitments and sustained investment in preventing violence against women and girls, to share evidence and best practice.   

This new action comes as the UK Government prepares to publish a strategy to deliver on its unprecedented goal to halve violence against women and girls in the UK within a decade. The strategy, championed by the Minister for Safeguarding and VAWG Jess Phillips and the Minister for Victims and VAWG Alex Davies-Jones, will set out the Government's approach to prevent violence and abuse altogether, pursue perpetrators, and support victims.  

The ‘All In' coalition – co-founded by the UK alongside the Ford Foundation and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund – will bring together international leaders, experts and influential personalities to tackle the issue worldwide. Harriet Harman – the UK's Special Envoy for Women and Girls – will represent the UK on the ‘All In' panel, alongside leaders like Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of Liberia, and Graça Machel, former Minister of Education in Mozambique.  

The launch comes as the epidemic of violence against women and girls deepens across the world. With conflicts raging in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza, rape is increasingly being used as a weapon of war. Globally, one in three women and girls will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, with 140 women and girls killed every day by a partner or close relative – more than 50,000 a year. In the UK, one in eight women experienced domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault last year, with rape at record highs.  

In her speech, Yvette Cooper will state her determination to drive international action on violence against women and girls, alongside the UK's forthcoming domestic strategy and highlight three key areas for action:  

• Sharing and learning from best practice globally to prevent and tackle violence against women and girls. For example, sharing evidence from the UK's ‘What Works to Prevent Violence' initiative which pioneers and tests approaches across the world and the UK's recent learning from Spain's database of domestic abuse perpetrators.   

• Making violence against women and girls part of policies on peace and security in order to tackle the use of rape as a weapon of war, from atrocities in El Fasher in Sudan to the war in Ukraine.  

• Ensuring the UK Government is working together with policing, civil society and international partners to fight international tech-enabled crimes, such as illegal intimate image abuse.   

The Foreign Secretary will announce new support to tackle abuse faced by women and girls online. This includes expanding a UK-hosted system, StopNCII.org, that works with victims and participating platforms - such as TikTok, Instagram and X - to remove and block non-consensual intimate images. This is part of a wider £4.85 million Integrated Security Fund package, which includes measures to tackle violence against women and girls both on and offline, at home in the UK and internationally.  

Speaking at the launch event for the ‘All In' initiative later today, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will say:

Numbers alone are inadequate but they should shock us nonetheless. 

One in every three women and girls worldwide will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.  

140 women and girls killed every day by a partner or close relative. 

……. 

In a world where technological change means abuse is crossing borders at unprecedented scale and speed.  

Including non-consensual sharing of deeply personal material that can have life-changing consequences. 

And where the global response is completely inadequate.   

Systems, laws, regulations, compliance and enforcement that just aren't fit for purpose in our digital age. 

….. 

So I pledge to go ‘All In' as Foreign Secretary. Working to ensure that women and girls around the world…can thrive and flourish - free from violence and free from fear.

The Foreign Secretary has said the drive for greater action on violence against women and girls in the UK will be reflected in our foreign policy too, learning from other countries and sharing UK best practice, including the Online Safety Act and new Ofcom guidance on online safety.