Global: Campaigning for the elimination of gender violence
On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, OMCT joins its network members and partners to call for therecognition that human rights cannot be universal without the protection of women from gender-based violence and discrimination.
From 25 November to 10 December human rights groups worldwide will be celebrating the “16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence” Campaign, which is dedicated this year to the 60thanniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the reassertion of the universality of the human rights of women. In the framework of this Campaign, OMCT field partners will carry out various activities to call attention to the magnitude, forms and consequences of gender-based violence and to demand states’ compliance with their commitments undertaken upon the adoption in 1993 of the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.
In India and Georgia, OMCT partners will highlight the consequences of militarization and conflict on women and demand accountability for gender-based violence perpetrated in this context. Other themes addressed include trafficking in women (West Bengal, India), women human rights defenders (Nepal) and women living with HIV/AIDS (Democratic Republic of Congo and Nepal). Capacity-building activities will be carried out in Bangladesh and Nepal in order to strengthen human rights activists’ capacity to document and report violence against women. In Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, partner NGOs will reach out to local communities in order to foster understanding and awareness of the right of women to a life free of violence.
Local and global activism plays a key role in the recognition that gender-based violence is the worst form of discrimination against women, and one that requires multiple and sustained positive measures by local and national authorities. Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 16 Days Campaign aims to finally bring human rights home to every woman.