16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

WHAT IS THE 16 DAYS ACTIVISM?

• The 16 days of activism is a global Crusade to oppose Sexual and gender Based Violence against women and children. The sole purpose of the campaign is raise awareness of the adverse impact that violence and cruelty have on women and children and to free society of abuse perpetually.
• The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign that starts on 25 November 2014. Commonly known as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, it will end on 10 December, which is the Human Rights Day. The campaign hopes to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international level. This year’s theme is “Let’s challenge militarism and end violence against women”. During the 16 Days of Activism, I will focus on ending violence against women and girls in Kenya.
• The 16 Days Campaign is an international campaign that started in 1991. Since then, over 5,179 groups in 187 countries have taken part. In Ireland last year, over 140 groups took part in the National Balloon Action or organised other events like art competitions, exhibitions, memorials, film showings, postcard and poster campaigns, information stands and media campaigns.
• The 16 Days Campaign provides us all-community groups, students, rape crisis centres and domestic violence support services, political pressure groups and individual activists, each and every one of us-with the opportunity to break the silence around domestic violence. By organising events in our local communities that highlight the issue of domestic violence and promote the services available for women, we make the issue visible, we give hope to women who are suffering and we hold perpetrators of abuse to account.

Why The 16 days and why between November 25th to December 10th Every year?

The 16 Days of Action run from 25th November, UN International Day of Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10th December, Human Rights Day. The campaign spans these 16 Days in order to highlight the link between violence against women and human rights. Today, women and girls are subjected to many forms of human rights violations solely on the basis of their gender.

The 16 Days period includes other significant dates like International Human Rights Defenders Day (29th November), World Aids Day (1st December) and the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre (6th December).

The aims of the Campaign: Why the campaign?

The 16 Days Campaign is an opportunity for individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women by:

• Increase women's safety
• Highlighting the nature and prevalence of violence against women
• Raising awareness of violence against women as a human rights issue
• Showing solidarity among women around the world
• Promoting women's leadership
• Lobbying government
• Strengthening local work to tackle violence against women

CAUSES OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

It happens when men abuse their power and positions of authority in order to control women and children.

Here are the major causes of SGBV in Kenya and perhaps similar to other parts of the world.

·  Social norms and culture - The root causes of sexual and gender-based violence lie in a society’s attitudes towards and practices of gender discrimination, which place women in a subordinate position in relation to men 

·  Patriarchy – male dominance, power and control that lies on what culture defines masculinity to be. 

·  Drug and substance abuse – as a contributing factor to the root causes 

·  Poverty- perpetrating hopelessness in a society and idleness 

·  Lack of respect for human rights – lack of information on this and abuse of the same. 

·  War and Conflicts- especially when sexual violence is used as a weapon 

·  Cultural Altitudes – peoples negative perceptions and beliefs

Don't be a victim!

• BREAK THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
• BREAK THE SILENCE
• KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
• ACT AGAINST ABUSE
• DO NOT LOOK AWAY!

KEY DATES TO WATCH OUT DURING THE CAMPAIGN PERIOD:

25 November: International Day of No Violence Against Women
29 November: International Women Human Rights Defenders Day
1 December: World Aids Day
3 December: International Day for the Disabled
10 December: International Human Rights Day