“Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, public health pandemic and serious obstacle to sustainable development. It imposes large-scale costs on families, communities and economies. The world cannot afford to pay this price.” — Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General
Today is DAY 1 of The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. AWC Berlin will participate over the next 16 days by raising awareness on GBV and highlighting change-makers and organizations working to fight against it. We’ll share information about the different aspects of GBV and call for you to do ONE ACTION against it each day.
The campaign selects November 25– International Day Against Violence Against Women as the start – and December 10– International Human Rights Day as the end – to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights.
DAY 1 – CALL TO ACTION
- share this post!
- comment on this post with your hope / wish for the next 16 days.
- let us know about an organization or change-maker working against GBV, write president@awcberlin.org or comment on post.
is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. The 16 Days Campaign has been used as an organizing strategy by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women by:
- raising awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international levels
- strengthening local work around violence against women
- establishing a clear link between local and international work to end violence against women
- providing a forum in which organizers can develop and share new and effective strategies
- demonstrating the solidarity of women around the world organizing against violence against women
- creating tools to pressure governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women
November 25th – International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
By resolution 54/134 of 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem on that day.
Women’s activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. This date came from the brutal assassination in 1960, of the three Mirabal sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, on orders of Dominican ruler Rafael Trujillo (1930-1961).
On 20 December 1993 the General Assembly, by resolution 48/104, adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.