By: Aditi Malhotra
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, the autological annual campaign commences on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and concludes on December 10th, Human Rights Day. During this time each year, people across the globe unite to raise awareness about the prevalence and consequences of gender-based violence, challenge discriminatory attitudes and call for the introduction of improved laws and social and cultural measures that combat the root mechanisms that perpetuate gender-based violence and allow them to stay unpunished. The campaign was initially started in 1991; against the backdrop of the nascent years of third-wave feminism which hinges on concepts such as intersectionality, gender deconstruction, consciousness raising, and more; by activists at the inauguration of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute.
Gender-based violence (GBV) is defined as violence committed against an individual because of their gender, gender expression, gender identity, or perceived gender, and targets populations of women, girls, queer persons, indigenous women, disabled women, and women belonging to other minorities with those belonging to more than one of the aforementioned populations facing higher risk.
A statistically evidenced phenomenon, GBV continues to plague society and manifests itself through heinous crimes including physical and/or sexual violence, sexual harassment, cyber-based harassment, stalking, honor killings, and more. At the global scale, an estimated one in three women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life. Most violence against women is committed by current or former husbands/intimate partners. Adolescent girls are at particular risk of violence, 1 in 4 adolescent girls is abused by their partner. The most brutal, visible, and extreme manifestation of the cycle of gender-based violence endured by women and girls is femicide (also called feminicide) - the intentional killing of a woman or girl because of her gender. While 55% of all female homicides are committed by intimate partners or other family members, only 12% of all male homicides are perpetrated in the private sphere.
While there have been drops in some forms of GBV, including a decline in the global rate of child marriage, less than 40%of the women who experience violence seek help of any sort. In the majority of countries with available data on this issue, women who do seek help look to family and friends and very few seek support from formal institutions, such as police and health services. In 2022, only 14% of all women and girls were living in countries with robust legal protection that guaranteed women’s fundamental human rights in spite of the fact that countries with domestic violence legislation have experienced lower rates of intimate partner violence.
Multiple campaigns are implemented to focus on the presence and critical impacts of GBV, including, most notably, the UNITE to End Violence Against Women initiative by UN Women created in 2008 to support the civil led 16 Days of Activism campaign and calls on governments, civil society, women’s organizations, young people, the private sector, media, and the UN system to join forces to address the global pandemic of violence against women and girls.
At a personal level, you can take several steps to prevent and put an end to GBV, specifically by addressing the foundational sexist and patriarchal notions that run through our daily interactions and perpetuate GBV, namely - sexist and discriminatory language, victim blaming, rape culture, gender-based stereotypes, etc. Across the next 16 days, take the opportunity to introspect, reflect critically, and amplify the voices of those impacted by GBV and are trying to educate society about the same.