14th April 2026
6 mins
Bolivia must pass Brisa’s Law to strengthen its response to sexual violence
Women and girls everywhere face myriad forms of violence, rooted in power imbalances that are sustained by discriminatory laws, and compounded by systems that fail to protect survivors or hold perpetrators to account.
Gender equality cannot be achieved without the legal protection and full realisation of women’s and girls’ rights to autonomy, dignity, and bodily integrity – including the right to give and withhold free, informed, and ongoing consent in all aspects of life. From sexual violence and exploitation to child, early, and forced marriage and unions (CEFMU), female genital mutilation (FGM), and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), women and girls face deeply interconnected forms of harm.
By allowing such injustices to persist, women and girls will continue to face the everyday threat of violence and exploitation, inhibiting them from living, and thriving, according to their wishes.
A world where women’s and girls’ right to be free from violence and exploitation is upheld, and perpetrators are held accountable.
10 governments to progress towards comprehensive, survivor-cantered legal ecosystems that uphold women’s and girls’ bodily autonomy, protecting them from sexual violence, exploitation and abuse, child marriage, FGM and TFGBV, and secure their access to justice.
150m women and girls will stand to benefit from increased legal protection and access to justice under international law with regard to gender-based violence.
“It’s a strategy for accelerating progress towards the end of gender-based violence – towards a world where women and girls can be, and feel, free to live their lives safely.”
Comprehensive reform of rape laws
We must ensure that rape laws everywhere reflect contemporary understanding of consent, coercion, power dynamics, and trauma. This includes reforming legal definitions of rape and sexual assault; removing legal loopholes; training judges, police and prosecutors; and supporting strategic litigation and survivor-led advocacy.
Legal ecosystems that uphold the right to bodily autonomy
Spanning laws against FGM and CEFMU, laws that protect against sexual violence and enable access to justice, and laws that deny girls education – as well as the needs for national and regional legal harmonisation, and increased focus on lesser-known harmful practices such as virginity testing and breast ironing.
Intersectional justice and survivor-centred systems
We must advance intersectional approaches and promote reforms that integrate survivor-centred processes globally, while enhancing the capacity of duty bearers to act according to international law and standards, and ensuring that statutory, religious and customary laws align with international law.
Tackling all forms of sexual exploitation
We will advocate for laws and procedures that criminalise physical and digital sexual exploitation – including livestreamed abuse, child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and image-based abuse – and working to ensure access to justice and survivor protection, highlighting where digital and physical harms intersect.
Strengthening movements and coalition leadership
Partnering with networks including SAMAJ, SOAWR, the Global Platform for Action to End FGM/C, Eurasia Network, LAC Network of Access to Justice, Network Belém Do Pará (OEA), and AUDRi strengthens our ability to influence national and global policy, amplify survivor voices, and ensure that legal reforms are locally informed and globally supported.
Campaigns with specific outcomes relating to this priority include but are not limited to:
The World’s Shame – Reforming Rape Laws
Ensuring that the global legal ecosystem encompass non-discriminatory, intersectional legal protection against sexual violence for women and girls, and hold perpetrators accountable.
Justice for girls and women (LAC)
Ensuring the legal ecosystem in LAC encompasses intersectional legal protection against sexual violence for girls, adolescent girls and women, and guarantees access to justice for survivors.
Reforming rape laws in Eurasia
Ensuring the legal ecosystem in Eurasia encompasses non-discriminatory and intersectional legal protection and implementation against sexual violence for women and girls and holds perpetrators accountable.
Access to justice (South Asia)
Ensuring the legal ecosystem in South Asia encompasses legal protection against sexual violence for girls and women, better and effective implementation of laws and policies and guarantees access to justice for survivors, including for the most marginalised.
End FGM (West Africa)
Ensuring that the legal ecosystem in West Africa encompasses specific anti-FGM laws that are effectively implemented to prevent FGM, and access to justice for survivors is guaranteed.
End Child, Early and Forced Marriage (Eurasia)
Ensuring that the legal ecosystem around women and girls in Eurasia encompasses mechanisms to prevent and address child or forced marriage, and to provide survivors with access to justice and adequate services.
When Laws Fail Her (Africa)
Ensuring that adolescent girls in Africa are protected in the law against GBV and its attendant impact, and can access justice in the event GBV occurs, so that they can live safe, dignified lives.
End Sexual Exploitation (Malawi)
Ensuring that the legal ecosystem in Malawi holds governments accountable under national, regional, and international law to prevent sexual exploitation, protect women and girls, and punish perpetrators.
Recognising the need to address both gendered violence itself and the systems that protect those responsible, we will invest in research and actions to expose and address the notion of impunity specifically, including:
Tell us what you think about our approach to ending gender-based violence, and where you think you can make a difference.
Securing rights. Transforming futures.