March 2006

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Ending Violence Against Women

Sara Nordstrom is the coordinator of "16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence" at the Center for Women's Global Leadership.160 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 732/932-8782, cwgl@igc.org, www.cwgl.rutgers.edu

"Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation. And it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development, and peace."

-- Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN, "A World Free of Violence Against Women," UN Global Videoconference, March 8, 1999

Worldwide, movements to end violence against women at the local, national, regional, and international levels have made extraordinary progress over the past two decades thanks to the tireless efforts of millions of activists in all corners of the globe. Feminist activists have insisted on an understanding of violence against women that transcends the public/private dichotomy and characterizes violence as one of the primary mechanisms through which patriarchy exerts control over women.

As feminists began to shatter the silence around the phenomenon of violence, the collective consciousnesses of entire societies shifted to reflect a keener understanding of violence against women as a pervasive, global phenomenon and a fundamental human rights violation. Women have been empowered to understand the various forms of violence they may face as a severe but preventable manifestation of gender inequality and to call on societies to respond effectively to patterns of violence perpetrated by the family, the community, and the state. Since initial feminist outcries, this understanding continues to evolve further toward an acknowledgment that violence against women constitutes not only a human rights violation but also a threat to the health, development, and security of individual women and the world as a whole.

Pragmatic changes have come hand-in-hand with this revolution of thinking. There is a growing movement dedicated to uncovering the truth about violence against women and pressuring society to take concrete steps to effectively prevent and respond to it. Broad, in-depth research has substantiated claims that violence against women is indeed a global phenomenon that transcends national, religious, ethnic, and economic boundaries.

Activists, asserting the right to a life free of violence, have formed a prominent lobbying force at the United Nations to demand government accountability. They have convinced governments to agree at national, regional, and international levels to address violence against women through the creation of treaties, national action plans, specialized ministries, and budget reform. The engagement of a broad array of societal actors has resulted in new domestic violence shelters, rape crisis hotlines, media campaigns, sensitization training for law enforcement officials, comprehensive health care services, and legal and judicial reform.

Photo from 16 Days Campaign Flyer, © Martin Alder/Panos

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign has consistently been at the heart of these movements. Thousands of organizations and individuals from over 135 countries have participated in this annual, international event over the last 15 years. It has acted as both a catalyst for major successes and a medium through which activists have confronted the challenges of anti--violence work.

The 16 Days campaign was conceived in 1991 by participants in the first Women's Global Leadership Institute at the Center for Women's Global Leadership. Historically, the 16 Days Campaign has been instrumental in using a human rights framework to draw global attention to the worldwide problem of violence against women. The dates of the campaign, November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women through December 10, International Human Rights Day, were chosen to symbolically link violence against women and human rights. In its early years (1991-1992), 16 Days activists initiated a worldwide petition calling for the United Nations to place women's human rights issues on the agenda of the World Conference on Human Rights in June of 1993 in Vienna.

By the time of the conference, the petition had collected half a million signatures in 23 languages from 124 countries. The petition helped secure a formal declaration of women's rights as human rights and of violence against women as a human rights violation in the Vienna Declaration.

In 1999, the 16 Days campaign was part of successful efforts urging the United Nations to declare November 25 as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. International level victories have been matched by achievements on the ground. Through the 16 Days campaign, activists have conducted media campaigns, campus rallies, art exhibitions, lobbying, roundtable discussions, theater performances, tribunals, and workshops.

Activists have used the human rights strategy of the campaign in innovative ways to form alliances with a broad range of actors including funders, governments, academic institutions, NGO networks, and United Nations entities across a broad range of issues including those related to health, development, democracy, and peace and security. In addition, activists use the period of the campaign to recognize and confront challenges that continually resurface as movements to end violence against women gain ground.

A main challenge to anti-violence activists is the ever-present need to effectively engage communities in order to elevate awareness and political will. Contemporary, culturally, and thematically relevant activities are carried out by many organizations. Since 2005, groups including Amnesty International in the United States and GenderLinks in South Africa have hosted public online discussions on various violence-related topics.

Similarly, in Ireland, Women's Aid created "16 Facts for 16 Days," daily emails with statistics on national and international levels of violence against women. In Sudan, the United Nations Population Fund brought together well-known Sudanese musicians and artists in a concert that featured songs with lyrics on violence against women and various kinds of performances intended to address violence specifically against internally displaced women housed at camps in Darfur. In Peru in 2004 a collective of diverse organizations, including many that have been part of the campaign since its inception, held a day-long commemoration on November 25 of the tenth anniversary of the Belém do Pará Convention ñ the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women.

Another key component of public engagement on the issue of violence against women is the involvement of men as partners in the struggle. Questions arise regarding what the most effective ways are to involve men that truly challenge gender norms and create lasting change. Most organizations deem the involvement of men an important component of anti-violence work.

In 2001, for example, the Kenya-based African Women's Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) launched a "Men to Men Initiative" to promote male involvement and action to fight violence against women throughout Africa. During subsequent 16 Days campaigns, FEMNET and partner organizations have hosted "Men's Travel Conferences" in which men visit local communities to speak with other men about violence against women and specifically its relationship to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

FEMNET's programs on men have multiple objectives, including large-scale attitude and behavioral change, the involvement of partners from varied sectors, and sharing strategies and experiences, all specifically through the creation of an autonomous African Network of Men Against Gender Based Violence.

Worldwide, many activists pair the 16 Days campaign with the White Ribbon campaign, an initiative begun by men in Canada to urge men to speak out on violence against women. The White Ribbon campaign centers around December 6, the anniversary of the 1989 Montreal Massacre in which a young man murdered fourteen female engineering students at L'Ecole Polytechnique. He blamed women in general, and feminists specifically, after his application for admission to the school was rejected.

Activists of the Cambodian Men's Network staged a public march and pinned nearly 54,000 white ribbons to men by going door-to-door and engaging workplaces throughout the country in the 2005 16 Days campaign. The National Centre Against Violence in Mongolia, and UNIFEM in New Zealand also participated in the White Ribbon Campaign in 2005. Various organizations in Colombia covered a soccer stadium during a championship game with posters portraying the importance of men as partners in the fight against violence.

Some challenges that arise within the 16 Days campaign are an unavoidable byproduct of the mass support and fairly mainstream success it has achieved. In Brazil and South Africa, for example, the campaign has become nationally recognized with mass involvement from non-traditional partners, including the private sector and the government itself. This marks the success of activists in elevating the issue to the level of national attention but it has also raised concerns that governments wlll try to dilute the message and substitute token acknowledgement of gender violence for actual policy changes.

In 2005, Genderlinks released a report entitled Gender Justice Barometer 2005: An Audit of Commitments Made During the 2004 South African Cyber-Dialogues. Their announcement of the launch read:

"Each year in South Africa [the 16 Days] campaign has gained momentum as government and civil society join hands to expose the horror that still lurks in our newly democratic society.

But what difference has the campaign made? This audit of the commitments made during the 2004 cyber-dialogues that accompanied the campaign takes a hard look at whether we are doing enough to turn the high profile campaign into change where it really matters: the lives of women. It concludes that unless we commit ourselves to a National Action Plan to end Gender Violence, with targets, timeframes, indicators, clear roles and responsibilities, the campaign will become irrelevant."

Even bigger questions remain: despite widespread awareness and activism on violence against women, why is the prevalence of violence still so high? New data from the World Health Organization's Multi-Country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women indicate that between 30% and 60% of women report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. Protecting, promoting, and fulfilling all women's human rights is an essential part of continuing to respond to and prevent violence.

Historically, the human rights framework has proved effective in garnering international attention around violence against women and providing women in diverse contexts with language, tools, and access to international law to hold their governments accountable. Anti-violence activists and advocates, including within the 16 Days campaign, have developed new understandings of violence against women through human rights, re-theorizing rape in armed conflict as a war crime and domestic violence as torture, for example.

Now, both the United Nations and the 16 Days campaign are at important moments in their history. The UN will continue to undergo review and reform that could alter the international agenda on violence against women. There will be multiple opportunities to engage with the UN on this critical issue, including in the fall of 2006 when Secretary-General Kofi Annan will release an in-depth study on all forms of violence against women. The year 2006 also marks the 16th year of the 16 Days campaign, an important moment to celebrate the progress that has been made and reflect on how to achieve more.

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