This is attributed to the strong advocacy work carried out by women's organizations for years. Before then, violence against women was simply treated as a private matter between partners. Husbands and wives should be treated as private individuals. After years of awareness work, violence against women received greater attention with the Declaration on Violence against Women prepared by the Commission on the Status of Women and adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993. Since this declaration, violence against women is defined as “any act of gender-based violence that causes, or is likely to cause, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether in public and in private