The present article purports to make a theoretical approach to the phenomenon of "domestic" violence, within the framework of the international corpus juris on the protection of women against the type of violence that affects them in a special or disproportionate manner. The aforementioned will be analyzed in light of States' obligation of prevention, making particular emphasis on the Inter-American system on the protection of human rights and, transversally, of the European and Universal systems. This analysis will permit us to sustain the existence of additional and reinforced obligations of prevention, including a duty of surveillance, as well as to illustrate about the practical dilemmas which derive from the conflict between, on one hand, the obligation of prevention, and on the other, the obligation to respect women's right to private and family life.