Violence against women is a violation of basic human rights, it does not only impact the victim, but also affects the economy and society as a whole. It detracts from the wellbeing and the dignity of women and threatens its security, and has serious consequences on their health. It affects their participation in public affairs, and impedes the course of development.
 The figures indicate that approximately 35 percent of women in the world face some form of physical and/or sexual violence, especially in the Arabic region, and more often in countries suffering from conflicts. Despite the growing recognition of the importance of this problem and its need for immediate attention, violence against women was absent in a number of Arabic countries' constitutions.
In order to assist Member States in their efforts to eliminate violence against women and the implementation of international commitments under the Beijing Platform for action, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and the goals of sustainable development, in particular the fifth objective, ESCWA, in partnership with the UN women designed a model to calculate the economic cost of violence against women. This model builds on cognitive development of international cost measurement tools as one overlaps that contribute to changing legislation and policies.
Within the framework of cooperation between the Commission and the Ministry of women's Affairs in Palestine and UN women, and in order to study the implementation of the model to estimate the cost of violence against women, the partners have sent an expert to conduct a field visit to the State of Palestine. These consultations are taking place to inform participants on the results of the visit and search the future prospects.