Demanding Implementation, Removing Obstacles : End violence against Women

The 2007 16 Days Campaign dedicates this year's theme to overcoming those challenges and obstacles in order to gain long overdue results in the struggle to end VAW. In collaboration with others, the 16 Days Campaign seeks to help dismantle obstacles and overcome challenges posed by social attitudes and policies that continue to condone and perpetuate gender based violence.
 
Challenges and obstacles have been identified by activists in all regions of the world, and we have chosen to highlight a few of those here. These can be addressed both as demands to be made on the state or other institutions and as actions that we must take in our own work in order to achieve better results. A few suggestions for focusing advocacy in this year's campaign include:  

Demanding and securing adequate funding for work against VAW;

• Calling for greater accountability and political commitment from states to prevent and punish all forms of violence against women in practice, not just in words;
• Increasing awareness of the impact of violence against women, including engaging in measures to end it by men and boys;
• Evaluating the impact and effectiveness of work to prevent violence against women;
• Securing the space for advocacy and defending the defenders of women's human rights in their work to end gender based violence.

The 16 Days Campaign continues to highlight important issues raised in past years, including looking at VAW as a public health crisis, the intersection between HIV/AIDS and VAW, and the protection of women human rights defenders.

Each year from November 25 to December 10, 16 days of activism against gender violence is organized all over the world to raise people's awareness on all forms of violence against women.

In Malaysia since 2000, WAO began to organise public education campaigns with Rapid KL (formerly known as PUTRA LRT & SPNB). Since 2004, WAO began collaborating with Malaysian Aids Council (MAC), Sisters In Islam (SIS), Amnesty International, Malaysia (AIM).

In 2005, 2 other groups joined in; Women's Centre for Change, Penang (WCC Penang), and Kata Gender.Whereas in 2006, we decided take the campaign out of the Klang Valley, to Ipoh and Seremban.

This year, WAO is once again teaming up with Malaysian Aids Council (MAC), Sisters In Islam (SIS), Amnesty International, Malaysia (AIM) to highlight this campaign on Wanita FM (88.1) on Nov 28 and 30, and Dec 3, 5, 7 and 10 at 8.45am.

The 16 day period is an annual event in all parts of the world to create a solidarity movement which raises awareness around gender - based violence as a human rights abuse, works to ensure better protection for survivors of violence and a call for its elimination.

Related Links:

• What is 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence?
• 16 Days of Activism (Lifestyle, The Sunday Star, 25 November 2007)
• Home is where the hurt is (Lifestyle, The Sunday Star, 25 November 2007)
• Feature article: A grand quarter century (Lifestyle, The Sunday Star, 25 November 2007)
• Violent world for women (Lifestyle, The Sunday Star, 25 November 2007)