Violence against women – particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence – is a major public health problem and a violation of women’s human rights. This was the subject of an event organised on 5 April by the Rotary Club in Verona. Speaking at the conference, Luisella Pavan-Woolfe, Head of the Venice Office of the Council of Europe, stated: “Gender violence is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality. This problem affects women disproportionately as it is directly linked to the unequal distribution of power between women and men”.