What is the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign?

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 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 violation of human rights. This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, December 1, World AIDS Day, and December 6, which marks the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

The 16 Days Campaign has been used as an organizing strategy by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women by:

• raising awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international levels
• strengthening local work around violence against women
• establishing a clear link between local and international work to end violence against women
• providing a forum in which organizers can develop and share new and effective strategies
• demonstrating the solidarity of women around the world organizing against violence against women
• creating tools to pressure governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women

Since 1991, approximately 1,700 organizations in 130 countries have participated in the 16 Days Campaign!

The Annual Theme

Every year, CWGL composes a Campaign theme in consultation with women's human rights advocates worldwide and then circulates an announcement for the campaign as widely as possible. Over the years, Campaign themes have included: "Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights" (1991/1992), "Democracy without Women's Human Rights . . . is not Democracy" (1993), "Awareness, Accountability, Action: Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights" (1994), "Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen and Beijing: Bringing Women's Human Rights Home" (1995), "Demand Women's Human Rights in the Home and in the World" (1997), "Building a Culture of Respect for Human Rights" (1998), "Fulfilling the Promise of Freedom from Violence" (1999), "Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Campaign" (2000), "Racism and Sexism: No More Violence" (2001), "Creating a Culture That Says 'No' to Violence Against Women" (2002), "Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights: Maintaining the Momentum Ten Years After Vienna (1993-2003)" (2003), "For the Health of Women, For the Health of the World: No More Violence," (2004-2005) and 2006:

"Celebrate 16 Years of 16 Days: Advance Human Rights ‹—› End Violence Against Women"

If you have suggestions for a future 16 Days Campaign theme or would like to receive future announcements, please contact CWGL.

Submit your materials!

Participants in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign have been instrumental in bringing issues of violence against women to the forefront in local, national, regional and global arenas. The strategies employed by groups and the activities organized during the 16 Days Campaign period continue to be unique and innovative. The Center for Women's Global Leadership asks that all participants of the 16 Days Campaign - past as well as present participants - send documentation of their events i.e. posters, pictures, t-shirts, video footage, poems, songs, statements, reports, etc. to CWGL for the campaign archives (see contact information below). If you have photographs, documents, or other examples of your work that you can send in an electronic version, please do so and we will post it on the website.

Join the 16 Days electronic discussion!

We invite you to join the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence electronic discussion taking place in the form of a listserve. The discussion allows activists to collaboratively develop themes and strategies for the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence Campaign. In addition, it can be used to discuss how groups are raising awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue at the local, national, regional and international levels, to uncover and learn from the ways in which activists have strengthened local work around violence against women, to continually resurface the link between local and international work to end violence against women, to share and develop new and effective strategies, to show the solidarity of women around the world organizing against violence against women, and to help develop further tools to pressure governments to implement promises made to eliminate violence against women.

If you are interested in joining the discussion or if you have any questions, please contact CWGL at cwgl@igc.org.

Join the 16 Days movement!

Become part of an already existing student, community, national or international activity for the 16 Days or take actions on your own. Submit your planned activity to us for posting to the International Calendar of Campaign Activities and become part of the growing global movement organizing during this time. Your submissions will also enable the Center to refer other individuals and organizations that are interested in your activities to you. Please send a description of planned activities for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence to the address below.

Get Involved - Online!

The Center will post all information about the Campaign online at http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu/16days/home.html.

Take Action Kit

Contact the Center for Women's Global Leadership to receive a free copy of the Take Action Kit for the 16 Days Campaign. The action kit includes:

• a campaign profile and a description of dates
• a list of participating organizations and countries
• a bibliography and resource list
• a list of suggested activities
• a current campaign announcement
• supplemental information relevant to this year's theme
  

For more information about the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, please contact:
Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 160 Ryders Lane, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8555 USA; ph: (1-732) 932-8782; fax: (1-732) 932-1180; e-mail: cwgl@igc.org, website: http://www.cwgl.rutgers.edu.

Reprinted with permission from the Center for Women's Global Leadership, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.