LEED To End GBV
On November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, LEED Initiative will launch its campaign for the 16 Days of Activism highlighting activists from all over the world to talk about violence against women and girls. Stay tuned!
Gender-based violence is a societal issue that takes place at an alarming scale all over the world and must be treated as a public international issue in order to put an end to it. Despite national and international efforts, violence against women and girls (VAWG) still occurs daily. It has become normalized and approached with nonchalance. This normalization and culture of discrimination against women and girls have authorized its occurrence with impunity.
Women’s rights activists and civil society organizations have been propelling VAWG to the international scene and raising their voices to denounce violence and abuse against women and young girls. These entities work on advocacy, raising awareness to change discriminatory attitudes, advancing national laws favoring creating safer spaces for women in both the public and private spheres and lobbying for their implementation, preventing violence, and responding to violence against women and girls on the ground.
Yet, despite all these efforts, VAWG is persisting all over the world and saw an upsurge due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, efforts have to be united in order to end this phenomenon. A united global action is required to tackle VAWG. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Against Women and Girls is an international civil society-led campaign that happens yearly as a tool to unite efforts and speak out against women’s rights abuses.
The campaign kickstarts on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ends on 10 December, Human Rights Day, indicating that violence against women is one of the most pervasive breaches of human rights worldwide. The campaign has been conducted yearly since 1991. The 16 Days of Activism is used as an awareness-raising and organizing strategy by individuals, organizations, and grassroots movements all over the world to call for the prevention and elimination of VAWG. In support of the 16 Days of Activism, the United Nations Secretary-General started a campaign, UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women. The UNiTE by 2030 campaign calls for global actions to raise awareness and support advocacy efforts to end violence against women and girls by 2030.
Leading campaigns during the 16 Days of Activism is crucial to highlight women’s rights violations taking place all over the globe. The 16 Days of activism is an opportunity to raise public awareness about how we can end VAWG and work on mechanisms to prevent this violence from happening in the first place.
LEED Initiative is leading a campaign during the 16 Days of Activism in order to raise awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge to end VAWG once and for all. Through this campaign, LEED Initiative will shed light on women’s rights abuses by inviting women’s rights activists to talk about abuses taking place in their countries. These activists will tackle violence against women and girls in different areas like political, psychological, physical, and economic violence. Not only that but, this campaign will also focus on the intersection of oppression and discrimination based on gender, race, religion, socioeconomic status, origins, sexuality, and physical disability.
Now Is The Time to End GBV!
VAWG has become rooted in social norms and attitudes. Therefore, we are trying to challenge these norms and denormalize all aspects of violence and ensure women’s rights and safety. Leading the change to shift these behaviors and attitudes is the role of governments, civil society, activists, and individuals. We are all together in this fight, all genders, as equality includes all of us.
During the 16 Days of Activism, LEED Initiative will be highlighting the issue of violence against women in all corners of the world, as well as how we can drive change.
Use the #LEEDToEndGBV hashtag in your posts during the campaign, and support women’s voices, your voices are a critical part of the global movement to end violence against women. Together we can lead change, change attitudes, and call for more supportive legal frameworks.
Speak up against violence!