One third of women around the world experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most often by a boyfriend or husband.

In France, over 130 women have been killed this year alone by a current partner or ex. 

While the #MeToo movement and a raft of high-profile cases shone a light on sexual harassment and assault, a dirtier secret remains the violence that occurs within the home.

On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25, France and neighboring countries are seeing a wider mobilization to fight back.

Sea of purple

On Saturday, 49,000 people marched in Paris to raise awareness and demand the government take concrete action and allocate more money to tackling violence against women.

Protesters held up purple banners that read "Pas une de plus" (Not one more), "Aimer ≠ Tuer" (To Love ≠ To Kill), and "Ras le viol" – a play on the French words for "fed up" and "rape." 

Some had the number "137" painted on their face – the number of women in France killed by their partner or ex up to that date. On Sunday, one more woman – a 55-year-old mother of four beaten and strangled by her husband who then dumped her body in a forest – made it 138, according to the FPCE collective, which keeps an up-to-date list on its Facebook page. 

Well-known actresses and comedians also joined the march, which was backed by political parties, trade unions and other organizations, while similar protests were held around the country.

The demonstrations came days after a Council of Europe report on violence against women criticized France's government for failing to prosecute offenders and offer victims proper protection.

The Council's Group of Experts (GREVIO) highlighted "inadequacies of the criminal-law response to violence," which meant that crimes were often reduced to less serious offences, and rapes were downgraded to sexual assaults.

French law defines rape not as a lack of consent but requires the use of violence, threat or surprise, and current counseling services and housing facilities for victims are grossly inadequate, the report also deplored.

Pointing to the fact that a woman in France is killed by her partner or ex every other day, the government launched in September a national debate involving ministries, local authorities, legal experts, health professionals, victims' groups and other social organizations to come up with concrete solutions on how to deal with violence against women, under the three priorities: "prevent, protect and punish."

On Monday, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe presented some 50 measures resulting from the consultations, including the opening of new emergency shelter spaces, the option for doctors to lift patient confidentiality in certain cases and a promise of 360 million euros (396 million U.S. dollars) to combat violence against women.

But for many, the state is still not doing enough. 

"I am disgusted," Caroline De Haas, one of the women behind #NousToutes (All of us), which organized Saturday's marches, tweeted following Monday's announcement.

She had earlier called for an additional one billion euros (1.1 billion U.S. dollars) to combat violence and carry out education, prevention and training.

"The government deals with offences once they have been committed," De Haas told Madame Figaro magazine on Saturday. "There needs to be a real course correction from the authorities."

Many of the protesters over the weekend were of a similar opinion, carrying signs decrying a deeply patriarchal society that fosters misogyny, as well as a "culpable state" and judiciary system that acts as an "accomplice" by downplaying crimes against women.

Stabbed, beaten and burnt

Some 219,000 women – one percent of the total population – are physically and/or sexually abused by their current or former partner every year in France, according to official data. 

An estimated 94,000 women aged 18 to 75 are meanwhile victims of rape or attempted rape every year.

Among the 138 victims who died in the past year at the hand of a current or former partner, according to the FPCE – a separate tally by AFP news agency puts the number closer to 116 – were a 15-year-old girl stabbed to death by her 17-year-old boyfriend, who then tried to get rid of her body by burning it in a garden shed; a 92-year-old woman beaten to death with a cane by her 94-year-old husband; and a mother of three strangled and stabbed by her ex-husband against whom she had already reportedly filed complaints on two occasions.

In many cases, the offender later killed himself. More than once, police and other authorities failed to take warning signs seriously or follow up on complaints, according to the FPCE's tally.

On Saturday, several groups of protesters in Paris held signs with the name and age of each woman killed this year.

Around the world

Elsewhere in Europe, there were similar marches. Some 10,000 gathered in central Brussels, holding signs with slogans like "Touche pas à ma mère" (Hands off my mother) and "On en a marre" (We're fed up).  Thousands also took to the streets in Rome and in Switzerland. 

According to the United Nations, while on average 35 percent of women worldwide experience physical or sexual abuse at some point in their life, the proportion in some countries can reach as high as 70 percent.

In half of all femicides, women are killed by a partner or family member, and violence against women goes farther, with girls and women making up 71 percent of human trafficking victims, and being forced into child marriages or to undergo female genital mutilation. 

"Sexual violence against women and girls is rooted in centuries of male domination," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. "All of this must change…now."