16 Days of Activism

The selection of days is not arbitrary – ending the campaign on International Human Rights Day aims to highlight that gender-based violence is not only an issue which concerns women, it is a fundamental violation of human rights.

During the 16 Days of Activism, people around the world unite to raise awareness, challenge discriminatory attitudes, and call for improved laws and services to end gender-based violence for good.

What is Gender-Based Violence? 

Gender-based violence is any harm – physical, verbal, psychological, structural, or discriminatory - that is perpetrated against a person or group of people because of their factual or perceived sex, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.

This type of violence is caused by archaic expectations of gender norms and appearances, toxic masculinity, and attempts to hold on to outdated power structures. Although typically understood as violence against women by men, gender-based violence can affect anyone who does not fit, or somehow challenges the accepted norms and expectations.

Too often gender-based violence is accepted as normal behavior and the global culture of discrimination against women and LGBTIQ people allows it to occur with impunity. Recent movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp have propelled the topic of the prevalence and acceptance of gender-based violence onto the global stage. 

Gender-Based Violence around the world. 

Gender-Based Violence is one of the world’s most persistent, widespread and global violations of human rights.

• The UN estimates that 1 in 3 women around the world have experienced physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their life, and that 1 in 4 women have experienced intimate partner or domestic violence.  

• This number goes up to 1 in 2 and higher for women and girls marginalized by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, or other factors. 

• LGBTIQ organisation Outright International highlights that gender-based violence is the most prevalent form of violence faced by LGBTIQ people.  

• These rates increase further in times of crisis, including during the COVID pandemic, as a result of natural disasters, conflict or other factors. In times of war, gender-based violence, and in particular sexual violence, are often used as a weapon of war to create fear, terrorize populations, or as an element of genocide.  

• The World Health Organization emphasizes that 56% of all female homicides are committed by intimate partners or other family members, compared to only 11% of male homicides being perpetrated in the private sphere.   

• According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, in 24 countries abortion is completely prohibited. Over 90 million women of reproductive age live in these countries.  

• State backed and perpetrated gender-based violence is on the rise around the world, a trend increasingly recognized as gender apartheid. 

What is Gender Apartheid? 

Gender apartheid is the systemic oppression, segregation and discrimination of persons based on their gender imposed through law and policy. It is a feature increasingly seen in authoritarian states, which are on the rise across the world. Such regimes frame gender and LGBTIQ equality as a threat to society and the state, and the persecution of women, girls and LGBTIQ people is emerging as a state-run project: organized, systematic, and part of regime definition.  

Examples 

• Since the Taliban seized power, education beyond the sixth grade has been banned for girls in Afghanistan.  

• Severe restrictions are in place for what women can wear, what work they can do, how they behave, as well as in relation to ownership, marriage and custody in Iran. Women activists are targeted by police, imprisoned and subjected to inhumane treatment in detention.  

• In Yemen women face increasing restrictions of mobility, decision making power and lack of access and control over resources. 

• In the USA the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in June 2022, effectively banning abortion in over half of the states. Attacks on health care for trans people are also sweeping the country.  

• In Russia domestic violence was decriminalized in 2017, essentially green-lighting gender-based violence. Russia also has widespread and severe state-sponsored LGBTIQ phobia, with the now infamous “LGBTIQ propaganda” law passed in 2013.  

• In Poland access to abortion has been severely restricted, only foreseeing the possibility in cases of rape or danger to the mother.  Since the near-ban was enacted in 2020, investigations have been opened, on questionable legal grounds, against women and girls seeking medical care for miscarriages or after legal medication abortions, as well as against doctors. 

• In Israel the government’s judicial overhaul package introduced in 2023 will massively expand the power of state-run religious courts which don’t allow women judges, and rarely allow women witnesses.  

• In China, the government has silenced feminists as it tightens social control, imposing strict censorship policies, including banning feminist terms and content they see as “harmful speech” or “inciting conflict between the genders”.  

• In May 2023 Uganda passed one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTIQ laws, which foresees the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. Long jail sentences are also decreed for “promotion”. 

• 24 countries around the world have complete abortion bans. These include Honduras, Nicaragua, Malta, Laos and Egypt among others. Restrictions to reproductive health and rights are a form of gender-based violence as they force women to seek unsafe treatment, or to give birth against their will, even when the pregnancy poses a threat to their life.  

How are activists challenging gender apartheid? 

• Finding Light in Yemen
• A “Peace” Agreement Brings Tyranny in Afghanistan
• The Economic Trap of Child Marriage in South Sudan

What can you do? 

Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi and Narges Mohammadi are part of a global campaign to end apartheid. Find out more about the campaign and how you can get involved here.

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