What is 16 days of activism?
The Global 16 Days Campaign was launched by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at its first Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991. It was initiated to be a worldwide call for the elimination of gender-based violence (GBV), to speak up, raise awareness and inspire people to do something to change the story for women.
It runs annually from November 25 (International Day Against Violence Against Women) to December 10 (International Human Rights Day).
Why?
The Global 16 Days Campaign works toward the elimination of gender-based violence by drawing attention to its persistence around the world and the legal obligation of states to end it. It aims to increase awareness of GBV, ensure prevention, and demand accountability for ending gender-based violence and discrimination in all spheres.
At Restored we participate in the event because we believe that underlying all of these values and priniciples is a biblical call (Judges 19:30) to speak up and do something about not only injustice in general, but violence against women in particular.
Who?
Since its inception, 30 years ago, more than 6000 organisations with a combined reach of over 300 million across in more than 185 countries have participated in the Global 16 Days Campaign. The groups include: grassroots women’s organizations, non-governmental organizations (national, regional and international), UN agencies and governments. 16 days is used by them to raise awareness, mobilise constituents, demand accountability and showcase progress on eliminating GBV.
This year:
Every year, Restored uses this time to raise its voice in the church to speak up about violence against women and girls. This year we want to particularly focus on inspiring and equipping the Church to stand against domestic abuse.
We will begin with our annual Changing the Story Conference where we will look at the next steps individuals and churches can take to stand against gender-based violence in their communities. We’ll be launching our new Church guide to ending domestic abuse and revealing our new Restored Beacon initiative.
Over the following 15 days, we will be sharing these ‘next steps’ across social media and inviting our supporters to do the same.