ACERWC African Committee of Experts on the Rights & Welfare of the Child Therefore, gender inequalities and discrimination can be a push factor or a restriction that constrains movement of women and girls. Generally, gender discrimination largely operates as a barrier to movement of women and girls thus curtailing their ability to escape subjection to discrimination.277 However, it has been pointed out that there is still need for ‘comprehensive, regularly collected and reliable sex-disaggregated data on international migration’ in order to allow extensive study of female migration.278 This will also contribute to deepened understanding of gender dynamics movement of individuals, families and children.279 3.2.3.4 Domestic violence According to the ILO, domestic violence is a push factor for children to leave their homes and to move to different places in pursuit of a new life.280 Unequal power dynamics which operate across gender, age as well as other status markers in the society,281 create an environment for domestic violence to take place. Socio-ecological phenomenon such as patriarchal norms and resulting dominance of men over women and children and socio-economic dynamics such as poverty and resultant inequalities contribute to domestic violence. This is because violence is intimately related with the manner relationships are structured and determined by power dynamics within and among communities, families and peers.282 Domestic violence leads to an environment that is unpredictable, unstable and dominated by anxiety and fear.283 This can result in psychological and emotional trauma just like the case of children who are subjected to child abuse.284 In addition, children may be directly subjected to physical and sexual abuse by perpetrators of domestic violence.285 Domestic violence and child abuse overlap at times and abuse of women or mothers usually precedes infliction of abuse upon children..286 Children’s susceptibility and capacity to protect themselves from violence changes as time progresses based on their evolving capabilities.287 Importantly, it should be recognised that girls and boys may develop differently particularly as they grow through childhood into adolescence which means their vulnerability and ability to protect themselves from violence might be at variance at certain times.288 Below is a narrative of a young Ethiopian migrant who was forced to leave home because of blatant domestic violence meted out by the father. The narrative was captured by DIIS in a SouthSouth Child Migration Study:289 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 56 Ruyssen (n 269 above) p 227. Ferrant (n 277 above) p 3. As above. ILO, ‘Migration and child labour: Exploring child migrant vulnerabilities and those of children left-behind’ Working paper (2010). MC Maternowska et al, The Multi-Country Study on the Drivers of Violence Affecting Children: A Cross-Country Snapshot of Findings (2016), UNICEF Office of Research, Florence, Italy P.1. As above P 8. Domestic Violence Prevention Center, ‘Impact of Domestic Violence on Children and Young People’ <http://www.domesticviolence.com.au/pages/impact-of-domestic-violence-children-and-youngpeople.php> (accessed 29 March 2018). As above. As above. As above. Maternowska (n 284 above) P 3. As above. Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), High Risk Migration in the Horn of Africa: South-South Child Migration, Policy Brief April 2015 P.