As sexual violence affects all parts of society, the responses that arise to combat it are comprehensive, taking place on the individual, administrative, legal, and social levels.

As a result of the programme, reductions in violence against women have been reported in communities in Cambodia, the Gambia, South Africa, Uganda, Fiji, the United Republic of Tanzania and elsewhere.

[7][8] At the same time, Schwartz[9] has developed a prevention model that adopts a developmental approach, with interventions before birth, during childhood and in adolescence and young adulthood.

In the early years of childhood, health providers would pursue these issues and introduce child sexual abuse and exposure to violence in the media to the list of discussion topics, as well as promoting the use of non-sexist educational materials.

In later childhood, health promotion would include modelling behaviours and attitudes that avoid stereotyping, encouraging children to distinguish between good and bad touching, and enhancing their ability and confidence to take control over their own bodies.

During adolescence and young adulthood, discussions would cover myths about rape, how to set boundaries for sexual activity, and breaking the links between sex, violence and coercion.

In many countries, when sexual violence is reported, the health sector has the duty to collect medical and legal evidence to corroborate the accounts of the victims or to help in identifying the perpetrator.

Such training should, in the first place, give health care workers greater knowledge and awareness of sexual violence and make them more able to detect and handle cases of abuse in a sensitive but effective way.

For instance, the administration of the antiretroviral drug zidovudine (AZT) to health workers following an occupational needle-stick exposure (puncturing the skin with a contaminated needle) has been shown to reduce the subsequent risk of developing HIV infection by 81%.

[11] In South Africa, where the rate of sexual violence is among the highest in the world, Thuthuzela Care Centres (TCCs) employ a trans-disciplinary approach to dealing with the aftermath of an assault.

[23] Centres that provide a range of services for victims of sexual assault, often located in places such as a hospital or police station, are being developed in many countries.

For example, the One-Stop Crisis Centre is a unit in the Kuala Lumpur Hospital that provides coordinated inter-agency response to violence against women.

Outcomes reported in research literature include lower levels of sexism and increased belief that participants could prevent violence against women.

[31] Typical activities include group discussions, education campaigns and rallies, work with violent men, and workshops in schools, prisons and workplaces.

Its recent activities have included conducting presentations in secondary schools, designing posters, producing a handbook for teachers and publishing a youth magazine.

[33] Many countries have a system to encourage people to report incidents of sexual violence to the police and to improve the speed and sensitivity of the processing of cases by the courts.

In South Africa, to counter this, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions has been training magistrates to interrupt proceedings in sexual violence cases when the medical expert arrives so that testimonies can be taken and witnesses cross-examined without delay.

[34] Several countries in Asia, including the Philippines, have recently enacted legislation radically redefining rape and mandating state assistance to victims.

To ensure that irrelevant information was not admitted in court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia drew up certain rules, which could serve as a useful model for effective laws and procedures elsewhere.

In Mumbai, India, an antitrafficking centre has been set up to facilitate the arrest and prosecution of offenders, and to provide assistance and information to trafficked women.

In the Kapchorwa district of Uganda, the REACH programme sought to enlist the support of elders in the community in detaching the practice of female circumcision from the cultural values it served.

[41] Approaches that address poverty, an important underlying factor in many such marriages, and those that stress educational goals, the health consequences of early childbirth and the rights of children are more likely to achieve results.

The issue of sexual violence in armed conflicts has recently again been brought to the fore by organizations such as the Association of the Widows of the Genocide (AVEGA) and the Forum for African Women Educationalists.

Based on work in Guinea[44] and the United Republic of Tanzania,[45] the International Rescue Committee has developed a programme to combat sexual violence in refugee communities.

The programme has been used in many places against sexual and gender-based violence, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, East Timor, Kenya, Sierra Leone and North Macedonia.