Violence against women has decreased by 11 percent compared to last year, said Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) on Thursday in a tweet.

According to the AIHRC 3,477 cases of violence against women have been registered with the commission in the past 10 months.

The AIHRC said that 3,910 cases of violence against women had been registered at the data center of the commission in 2019.

1/ AIHRC’s report on violence against women is out today. The cases registered with us saw 11% reduction compared to 2019, but this may be due to lockdown measures.
English:https://t.co/NuhwZ02r7N
Dari:https://t.co/LCRKHous16
Pashto:https://t.co/laDcSo1reQ

— AIHRC (@AfghanistanIHRC) November 26, 2020

The decline could be due to a lack of women’s access to legal and judicial institutions, escalation of insecurity in the country, and the lockdown due to COVID-19.

This comes after the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs said on Wednesday that violence against women in Afghanistan has increased in the past year.

Speaking on the occasion of International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the launch of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign, the ministry said that 2,582 cases of violence against women had been reported to them in the past year.

They also said that in the past four months, 34 cases, including murders, have been reported to the ministry.

According to the officials the main cause of domestic violence and violence against women is war and insecurity.