Each year, from November 25 to December 10, the 16 Days of Activism campaign calls for action against one of the world’s most persistent human rights violations – violence against women.
The 16 days– which start on International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and end on Human Rights Day– are significant because they underscore that violence against women is a violation of human rights. During these days of activism, people worldwide unite to raise awareness and call for improved laws and services to stop gender-based violence (GBV).
Black women in particular are disproportionately impacted by violence. According to the Institute For Women’s Policy Research, this includes high rates of intimate partner violence, rape and homicide. Black girls and women also experience institutionalized racism.
A report by the institute, called The Status of Black Women in the United States, revealed that more than four in ten Black women experience physical violence from an intimate partner during their lifetimes. Black women also experience significantly higher rates of psychological abuse and sexual violence. More than 20 percent of Black women are raped during their lifetimes—a number higher than women overall.
In 2022, the Guardian reported that:
As homicides increased nearly30% nationwide [in 2020], the rate for Black women and girls rose 33%, a sharper increase than for every demographic except Black men, and more than double that of white women, according to a Guardian analysis of homicide data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Killings of Black women and girls increased across age groups, from school-age children to senior citizens. Gun violence drove the increase, with three-quarters of homicide victims who were Black women and girls dying from gunshot wounds.
And as the Shanquella Robinson story has made clear this year, violence against Black women is not limited to attacks from strangers or romantic relationships.
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In 2022, the 16 Days Of Activism campaign continues its multi-year focus of ending femicide, or the gender-related killing of women and girls.
Here are key facts about this important annual campaign.
01
How Did The Campaign Start?
Activists launched the annual international campaign at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute at Rutgers University in 1991. The Center for Women’s Global Leadership has led the initiative ever since. It is the world’s longest-running women’s rights campaign and according to the center, more than 6,000 organizations in some 187 countries have participated. This global campaign aims to raise awareness about the consequences of gender-based violence (GBV) and urge the government, community, corporate and philanthropic sectors to eliminate GBV.
Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images
02
Why Does It Matter?
Violence against women and girls remains one of the most pervasive human rights violation in the world. In fact, one in three women will experience gender-based violence in their lifetime. It’s a staggering figure that has remained largely unchanged over the last decade.
According to The World Health Organization, 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence.
The 16 Days of Activism campaign provides an important platform each year to focus the world’s attention on the goal of ending violence against women and girls.
Each year during the campaign, advocates, activists, UN staff, charities, schools and others plan local events and awareness-raising activities focused on gender-based violence against women.
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.
Photo by Erik McGregor via Getty Images)
03
The Work Of The United Nations
The campaign is supported by the United Nations through the Secretary General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women initiative. This year, the UN marks 16 Days under the theme “UNiTE! Activism to end violence against women and girls”.
This year, under the UNiTE theme, “Activism to End Violence against Women & Girls,” the United Nations is focused on making online spaces safe by highlighting digital violence and all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) facilitated by technology. It is also focusing on innovations in GBV prevention and response, as well as the power of combining art and activism (artivism) to disrupt violence.
