Ending Gender Based Violence
16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence
During the period of 25 November – 10 December every year, internationally. The 25th of November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the campaign runs until 10th of December, Human Rights Day.
How it started
It was started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership. It is used as a strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. In support of this civil society initiative, the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign (UNiTE campaign) calls for global actions to increase awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations.
Source: https://www.unwomen.org/
In South Africa, this campaign is supported by the Government, and has the following goals:
- To encourage all South Africans to help eradicate violence against women and children
- To combine technology, social media, the arts, journalism, religion, culture, business and activism in a bid to highlight the many ways in which violence devastates women and children
- To encourage society to acknowledge that violence against women and children is a social, rather than governmental, problem
- To encourage collective responsibility within communities to tackle violence against women and children
- To expand accountability beyond the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security cluster to include all government clusters and provinces