NGOs SOS Telefon and Association for Non-Violent Communication have stressed that the position of victims of sexual harassment and abuse remains very concerning. Some NGOs say that the situation is getting worse, they said.

Women who speak up about their experience of sexual abuse and harassment often face doubts whether they are telling the truth, efforts to minimise the abuse and speculation about potential benefits for the victim in reporting the crime, the NGOs said.

Moreover, the victims' distress is often made worse by unprofessional councillors, doctors and other staff they encounter at various institutions, said the NGOs. Victims thus often decide to remain silent to avoid being victimised.

Meanwhile, the Community of Social Services stressed that victims are never to blame, the fault is always with the perpetrator. It added that the Social Services provide 24-hour assistance to victims of violence. every year, the centres speak to over 3,000 victims of violence, of which a great majority are women.

Anja Kopač Mrak, the minister responsible for equal opportunities, said in her message that women have been subjected to sexual harassment ever since they entered the workforce in great numbers.

She added that especially young women and girls were also very vulnerable victims of online harassment. Raising awareness about the pitfalls of the internet is one of the most effective tools to protect them.

The women's section of Slovenian PEN writers' centre, MIRA, pointed to the elimination of women writers from national school curricula.

The government said that it promoted zero tolerance of violence, while parliamentary Speaker Milan Brglez, the Slovenian ambassador of the White Ribbon Campaign, said everybody, and people in power most of all, have the obligation to make an effort to uphold women's rights.

Data from the national Statistics Office show that some 1,600 women experienced physical violence or sexual abuse every year between 2010 and 2014. Around 200 cases of sexual abuse were reported to the police annually in this period.

Meanwhile, data from Eurostat show that 215,000 cases of sexual abuse were reported in the EU in 2015, of which 80,000 were rapes. More than 90% of the victims are women and 99% of the perpetrators are men.

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights says that 10% of women have been subjected to harassment online, while 2% of women in Europe between 18 and 29 (1.5 million) have been victims of online stalking.

Data from the UN show that more than a third of women in the world have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse; moreover 750 million women were married off before reaching the age of 18 and more than 250 million were victims of genitalia mutilation.

Running under the motto Leave No One Behind: End Violence against Women and Girls, the day will start the UN's 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence, a campaign ending with the Human Rights Day, 10 December.