16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence
The world stands as one in creating awareness by observing 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence. It is an international campaign that takes place annually since 1991 whereby a group of activists at Women’s Global Leadership Institute began this initiative. It starts on 25th November and to 10th December, which is the Human Rights Day. Intention is to keep retelling the world that violence against women and children is violation of their human rights to freedom, safety and living peacefully. My concern is if this awareness campaign has been in place for almost 30 years, why are we not seeing change? Could it be we are not doing enough?
Almost every morning we wake up to yet another senseless death of a woman killed by her husband/lover, a woman who has been beaten black and blue, a child who has been raped by a man very close to them. It is a daily struggle that we have to tackle aggressively, take a strong stance and say NO to GBV until there are zero deaths, beatings and rape in the hands of people who are supposed to love and protect us. We also have to fight stigma and STOP humiliating victims because most people shy away from opening up because of the shame and more abuse that their predecessors have been subjected to.
