16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence 2024

Monday 25th November 2024 marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, which is an annual global campaign that begins on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and runs through to International Human Rights Day on the 10th December. Every 10 minutes, a woman is killed. The 2024 theme of the UNiTE campaign is:

“Towards Beijing +30: UNiTE to End Violence Against Women and Girls”.

Read how you can campaign across the 16 days below. Post your activity on social media to encourage others to campaign. Use the hashtags:

# UNiTE

#16DaysofActivism

#TowardsBeijing+30

#NoExcuse

#Regulate

#FixRegulation

UNiTE to End Violence against Women

‘Violence against women and girls remains one of the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violations in the world. Globally, almost 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.

For at least 51,100 women in 2023, the cycle of gender-based violence ended with one final and brutal act—their murder by partners and family members. That means a woman was killed every 10 minutes.

This scourge has intensified in different settings, including the workplace and online spaces, and has been exacerbated by conflicts, and climate change.

The solution lies in robust responses, holding perpetrators accountable, and accelerating action through well-resourced national strategies and increased funding to women’s rights movements’ (United Nations, 2024).

One system we particularly focus on at SHERA is reducing gender-based-violence and violence against children in the family courts. Global data, including our own research in Brazil and England, reveals women and children are disbelieved, punished for reporting abuse and children are increasingly being removed from protective mothers and placed with abusive fathers. They are sometimes forced into contact with convicted child sex abusers. An abuser can never be a safe parent. The risks are too high and may lead to child homicide. All children deserve safe, loving parents. All women deserve to live in peace free from violence. One particular problem is the presumption in law that it is always in the best interests of a child to maintain involvement with both parents – this often results in children maintaining contact with abusive parents. This must change. Below is a list of events and activities you can engage with to bring an end to gender-based-violence as we move towards the target to eliminate GBV by 2030:

25th November 2024 – 10th December:

Read about our campaign goals here and get in touch with us if you can help us.

Read about our joint efforts and sign the petition from Claire Throssell and Women’s Aid, Right to Equality and others to call upon government to release the findings of the review into the presumption of parental involvement and to move toward a new, safer law for child and adult victims of abuse.

Share our video (available in English and Portuguese) summarising findings from our family court studies with friends, families and professionals to educate them about what is happening in the secret family courts. The video details why the harmful pseudoscience of ‘parental alienation’, a legal strategy used by abusers to deny child abuse, must be prohibited globally from use in our courts.

Read and learn about obstetric violence. This global issue relates to violence against women during pregnancy and birth. Obstetric violence encompasses a wide range of mistreatment, from disrespectful and autonomy-denying care such as not being allowed to move during labour, being denied a birthing companion, physical and verbal abuse, as well as extreme negligence that puts lives at immediate risk. Show support for the Birth Trauma Inquiry and activities of Theo Clarke. Black and Asian women are respectively four and two times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women. We must raise awareness and eliminate this violence to protect women and children.

25th November: Male allies challenging sexism (MACS) event: (Worldwide – 1 hour) Join the webinar ‘Working with boys to develop an understanding of violence against women and girls’, organised by Merched Cymru from 7-8pm (GMT). The event will address the importance and challenges of engaging effectively with boys when learning about issues surrounding male violence against women and girls.

25th November 2024: Join the vigil @18:00 ~ United Nations Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls – VIGIL – Canterbury. In solidarity with Women and girls facing endemic sexual violence in Palestine, Congo, Sudan, Haiti, Kashmir and other colonised, stolen and exploited lands. Details here: 25 November 2024 18:00 ~ United Nations Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls – VIGIL – Canterbury

Sign this Australian petition asking Woolworths to stop actively promoting and collaborating with Roblox. Roblox is an online gaming platform known to be accessed by child abusers that promotes violence. More information about Roblox is available here

Contact us to sign our open letter with Right to Equality and the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK calling on government to regulate all professionals working as expert witnesses in the family courts. Currently, you do not have to be regulated to work with vulnerable families. Regulation itself is problematic and slow and so regulation alone will not solve the deep rooted inequalities and misogyny prevalent in our systems. However, regulation is the first step needed towards total reform of the family courts. These experts help judges make life-long decisions on children and their family’s lives. You would not let a doctor who is not regulated operate on your leg, so why do we let unregulated professionals inform these life-altering decisions regarding where a child should live or who they spend their time with? We will release the full letter on the 10th December.

Watch an array of world-leading speakers on gender-based-violence over the 16 days at the Central and North West London NHS White Ribbon programme including the Drive Partnership on working with perpetrators, Rights of Women and IKWRO, Mahmud et al. speaking on Older people affected by domestic abuse, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime on child to adult abuse, Sista Space on African heritage women subject to domestic abuse, the Institute for Addressing Strangulation on Strangulation and domestic abuse, In conversation with Andrew Wadey on The Metropolitan Police Response to Male Violence against Women and Girls, Charlie Webster, an award-winning broadcaster, journalist, author, documentarian, producer, campaigner and survivor, David Mandel, the creator of the Safe & Together Model, the survivors of Andrew Tate and the SHERA Director, Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno on the findings on the harm to health of women and children reported in the private family courts.

28th November: Join us at Safe in Faith, in person on 28th November for our interfaith "Faith on 4th” event centred on survivors who have a faith background, asking "Why keep the faith?" The event will include talks, creative workshops, poetry, Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony and food (free event in partnership with the Faith and VAWG Coalition and Forward).

Sign this petition calling for government to change the law so victims can freely discuss their family court experiences, started by SHERA member Sarah Taylor.

Sign this petition calling to Mandate Independent Oversight in Family Court Cases Involving Coercive Control and DA, started by SHERA member Sarah Taylor.

10th December 2024: sign up for the Women’s Resource Centre 14:00 ~ 16 Days of Activism Special Event – Advocating for Women, Influencing Government – WRC – Online.

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