The demographic picture has dramatically changed since WPD first presented its dossier on ‘Issues of Discrimination in context of Widowhood for the attention of CEDAW’ in 2010. There has been an unprecedented and exponential increase in the number of widows and wives of the missing, due to continuing eruptions of armed conflict, revolution, civil war,
sectarian violence, the rise of fundamental extremism, HTPs like child marriage and polygamy, natural disasters, HIV and AIDS, Ebola, and natural disasters. The poverty and stigma of widowhood is exacerbated in conflict and post conflict environments, making them ever more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation (physical, psychological, sexual and
economic), especially when they are displaced, IDPs, refugees or asylum seekers.
download: