A new international initiative aimed at tackling violence against women and girls was formally launched on Tuesday, 2 December 2025, bringing together prominent female leaders and experts
from around the world.
Announced by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and Foreign Secretary The Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP, the global ‘All In’ coalition has been co-founded by the UK in partnership with the Ford Foundation and the Wellspring Philanthropic Fund. The alliance seeks to accelerate political commitments, boost sustained investment, and share evidence-based approaches to preventing gender-based violence.
The launch coincides with the annual Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, which this year focuses on the rising threat of digital abuse. In her address, Cooper described violence against women and girls as both a domestic and global emergency, stressing the need for coordinated international action.
The UK plans to leverage the coalition to exchange global best practice, drawing on initiatives such as the UK’s What Works to Prevent Violence programme and operational insights from Spain’s domestic abuse perpetrator database.
The Government is also preparing to release its new national strategy to meet its “unprecedented goal” of halving violence against women and girls within the next decade. The forthcoming plan—led by Minister for Safeguarding and VAWG Jess Phillips and Minister for Victims and VAWG Alex Davies-Jones—will outline measures to prevent abuse, hold offenders accountable, and strengthen support for victims.
Representing the UK on the ‘All In’ panel will be Harriet Harman, the UK’s Special Envoy for Women and Girls. She will join global figures including #MeToo founder Tarana Burke, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former Mozambican Education Minister Graça Machel.
The coalition’s launch comes amid escalating gender-based violence in conflict zones including Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza, where sexual violence continues to be weaponised. Globally, one in three women and girls will face physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, and around 140 are killed each day by a partner or family member. In the UK alone, one in eight women experienced domestic abuse, stalking or sexual assault last year, with reported rapes at record levels.
Cooper outlined three priority areas for the UK’s international engagement:
- strengthening global knowledge-sharing on prevention and survivor support,
- embedding action against gender-based violence into peace and security policies, particularly regarding sexual violence in conflict, and
- working with police, civil society and global partners to combat tech-enabled crimes such as illegal intimate image abuse.
As part of the initiative, the Foreign Secretary announced new UK investment to tackle online abuse. This includes expanding StopNCII.org—a UK-based platform used by victims and major social media companies, including TikTok, Instagram and X—to prevent the spread of non-consensual intimate imagery. The expansion forms part of a £4.85 million Integrated Security Fund package aimed at addressing violence both online and offline.
Speaking at the launch, Cooper said:
“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”.
The Government said that its push for tougher domestic action—reflected in the Online Safety Act and new Ofcom guidance—will be mirrored across its foreign policy, with an emphasis on collaboration, learning from international partners, and exporting UK best practice. Photo by Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Wikimedia commons.