Fact sheet: Widowhood in the UNECE region (Geneva 2019)
Across the UNECE region the number of widows is rising dramatically due to wars and conflicts, diseases, migration and displacement, child marriages, natural disasters, climate change and people living longer. The suffering of widows is multi-dimensional; exacerbated and caused by extreme poverty, ageism, violence and abuse, marginalisation and stigmatization, and harmful practices that violate widows human rights, survival and dignity. Widowhood is one of the most neglected of human rights issues.
Nevertheless only two of the 36 UNECE National Reports on Beijing plus 25 review mentioned widows: Belarus and the Ukraine.
