Event Summary
On 12 January 2026, the Dr Benzerdjeb University Hospital Centre in Oran launched a national census (for the year 2025) on violence against women. The operation is being carried out in medical and surgical emergency departments, under the supervision of local health authorities, with the mobilisation of multidisciplinary teams (general practitioners, psychologists and trained staff). Data will be collected through individual interviews and digital questionnaires on tablets, using a dedicated application, in a continuous system announced over a month (24 hours a day). The stated objective is to produce reliable scientific data to better measure the forms, frequency and contexts of violence, and to guide the development and evaluation of public policies (health, social protection, prevention), including the improvement of medical, psychological and social care. The initiative is presented as being led/supervised by the INSP and supported by the UNFPA, with an explicit commitment to confidentiality, ethics and the protection of participants’ data.
This event is part of a series of public initiatives aimed at better documenting and addressing gender-based violence, particularly through the health sector. What seems distinctive here is the announcement of an intensive programme (one month, 24 hours a day) and the use of dedicated digital tools, as well as the reference to INSP supervision and UNFPA support. This suggests a desire to standardise data collection and produce a more robust “map” of violence, beyond one-off awareness-raising actions. Nevertheless, the existence of a plan does not guarantee fundamental change: the determining factor will be the authorities’ ability to translate the data into concrete, monitored and evaluated measures, and to allow public access to aggregated results that can be used by stakeholders (including civil society) for advocacy and service improvement.