Commit • Act • Demand: We CAN End Violence Against Women!
Each year since 1991, tens of thousands of activists from every region of the world have taken part in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign. The campaign's central messages - women's rights are human rights and violence against women constitutes a violation of human rights - have been a rallying call of the women's movement. Recognizing that violence against women affects people from every country, race, class, culture, and religion, the 16 Days Campaign provides an opportunity for activists to work together in solidarity and draw upon this period of heightened international attention to gain support for their local efforts.
In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) during last year's 16 Days Campaign, millions of people pledged their support for ending violence against women (VAW) and upholding human rights. Building upon this momentum, the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) dedicates the 2009 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign to honoring groups and individuals who have committed to bringing VAW to the forefront of global attention, to encouraging everyone in their various capacities to take action to end VAW, and to demanding accountability for all of the promises made to eliminate VAW. Therefore, the 2009 theme is: Commit ▪ Act ▪ Demand: We CAN End Violence Against Women!
Commit: We are All Responsible
In 1991 when 23 women from around the world met together at the first Women's Global Leadership Institute at the Center for Women's Global Leadership and envisioned the 16 Days Campaign, it was unlikely that any of them could have foreseen the incredible success of the campaign as a mobilizing tool. Because of their efforts and the commitment of so many other activists over the past 19 years, well over 2,000 organizations in 158 countries have organized around the 16 Days Campaign, and the issue of gender-based violence has received a significant amount of international attention. In planning for the campaign, CWGL asks you not only to honor and celebrate the achievements made to ending VAW, but also to encourage broad-based community participation by emphasizing that everyone has a role to play. We all have a responsibility to end gender-based violence together as women, girls, men, boys, and individuals of all generations, religions, occupations, sexual orientations, abilities, political persuasions, and socio-economic backgrounds.
Act: We Can All Make a Difference
2009 will mark the 10th anniversary of the United Nations' formal recognition of November 25th as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. There are many other landmark dates and documents that are the direct result of ACTION that women's rights activists and defenders have taken. The anti-violence against women movement provides one of the best illustrations of how local activism can translate into global action. During the 2009 16 Days Campaign, CWGL encourages individuals, organizations, governments, etc. to take action on the commitments they have made to ending VAW. Each commitment - be it a personal pledge to speak out, a local or national law, an international convention or resolution, the Beijing Platform for Action - should be seen as a promise that has been made to women. NOW is the time to act on these promises. Every action, no matter how big or small, can make a difference!
Demand: We Are All Accountable
At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, women's organizations from around the world met with government representatives and collaboratively produced the Beijing Platform for Action - one of the most forward-thinking government negotiated documents on women's rights to date. This ground-breaking document set forth a list of actions, which, if implemented, would significantly reduce incidences of violence against women. 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Conference on Women. Therefore, we must all demand implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, as well as other key documents, and demand state accountability for ending impunity, allocating adequate resources, and implementing good laws and national action plans to address VAW. We also call on the UN to take bolder action on the UN Secretary-General's "UNiTE to End VAW" Campaign Framework for Action. We are all accountable for playing our part in reducing violence at the individual and community levels, as well as at the nation-state and global levels.
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women's Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University in 1991. Participants chose the dates, November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women, and December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation.
If you would like more information about the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, check out the website here [1].
Pictures from the 2008 16 Days Campaign can be viewed on Flickr here [2].
Links:
[1] http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days/home.html
[2] http://www.flickr.com/photos/18578511@N04/
[3] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1081799
[4] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1081805
[5] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1081807
[6] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1081816
[7] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1081824
[8] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1081875
[9] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1081889
[10] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1083297
[11] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1084220
[12] http://rabble.ca/print/babble/feminism/16-days-activism-against-gender-violence-nov-25-dec-10-2009#comment-1084221
[13] http://rabble.ca/user
[14] http://rabble.ca/user/register
funny....just too freakin funny......
Here is the Beijing Platform for Action - for anyone that is interested.
remind: what is "too freakin funny"?
It is interesting to note that the Beijing Platform for Action will only "consider" reviewing laws that contain punitive measures against women who have undergone illegal abortions:
Maysie
I appreciate your interest and promotion of the 16 Days of Action agaisnt Violence Against Women but you might be interested to use the Canadian versions of that campaign.
For example In Quebec it is being marked by La cles and in the anglophone side it was marked last year by CASAC in the events called Flesh Mapping: vancouver markets pacific women.
In both these cases and many others the feminist integration of economic social and political rights is substantially more developed than what is on offer at the Amercian based Center for Women's Global Leadership which is much more limited to a civil rights approach and therfore pays less heed to race and class oppression never mind to american imperialism or multinational corporate capitalism.
Also most Canadian groups do not confine themselves to a UN model or fora which limits some kinds of actions since it relies totally on cooperation from (nation) states
The women from FAFIA and those who used to do NAC work and those of us still doing international/transnational work are very proud of the advances in feminism within Canada that tied resistance to oppression by sex to that of race and class in a much more unyielding way.
Another difference is that the women from Canada using the international fora do so as part of their work to improve the plight of women here not just to lead the rest of the world.
Canadian feminist praxis of course always needs improving but we must claim the achievements that are rightly ours. Our movement is much more integrated and radical in theory and practice of the transformative politics of feminism
Borrow the dates which is the best part of the campaign and follow the Canadian strategies to demolish sexism beginning with violence against women
VAW workers and those who exited from prostitution have fought to get prostitution recognized as violence against women,
and yet we have a whole freaking forum honouring it....and some people are trying to sell us the Levis Strauss nonsense it is human rights, including a basic endorsement of such from this site itself...
my request would be for babble to shut the forum down for these 16 days as a being in a place of democratic truth that prostitution is VAW.
Since my earlier post I have spoken with some of the Quebec organisers about plans for the actions this year. I am thrilled that there will be a major bilingual conference on Violence Against Women at the University of Quebec at Montreal with plans for a Dec 6 anti-violence March I understand. And I know events begin Nov 25 as they do in Vancouver. But I am also very excited that the coaliton of groups including the rape crisis centres les calacs and the transition houses have been part of the organizing of the FFQ federation des femmes des Quebec and together they have produced a new document of what we know about violence against women. This new unity statement of the Quebec womens movement on violence will be a great new step for the anti-violence organizing across Canada and Quebec
I understand that pornography and sexual exploitation are addressed in that document. I can't wait to see it and have translations made available for us all.
thanks for the head ups Lee, make sure you post a link here please when it does...
and interestingly, i just got an email from a friend in town here, who has a friend in Van that attended the SW conference that you spoke at yesterday.
Apparenly you, and the other woman who spoke made a serious impression on her friend...and my friend remembered that i spoke of you posting here on this topic...
Events posted in the Toronto area by METRAC
Stella, Montreal's community organization by and for sex workers, invites you to support our actions in December-to denounce violence against sex workers and to fight for our rights and the recognition of our work. The criminalization of our work robs us of the right to security. Security that is much needed-at Stella, we record more than 60 attacks per year. The trials of two alleged sex offenders who targeted sex workers start in December. We invite you to support the victims by demanding no to impunity towards sex worker related violence.
We call for decriminalization of the sex industry to give workers more control and safety in our workplaces.
We are counting on you, sex workers and allies, who believe in our mission, to join us for our actions:
December 7th Action to support the 5 sex workers who pressed charges against Giovanni D'Amico 10am: Demonstration in front of the Montréal courthouse 1 rue Notre-Dame Est
December 9th Action to support the 3 sex workers who pressed charges against Marco Chevalier 9am meet at Stella Demonstration in front of the Saint-Hyacinthe courthouse 1550 rue Dessaulles We will be headed by bus (please RSVP in advance)
i have to say i am completely offended at the suggestion of shutting down the sex worker rights forum during this time. we are women and this sort of sentiment is totally counter productive. as if excluding us or shutting us down or silencing us during this time is some how furthering the cause of ending violence against women is not completely absurd.
accept it, we exist.