The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence (GBV) is a campaign that seeks to raise awareness about GBV, connect survivors of GBV with resources, and to advocate for policies that protect those affected by GBV. Here at GroundBreakers, we spoke with various leaders and organizations to gain more insight to GBV and how the pandemic has exacerbated domestic violence against women and girls. As the 16 Days of Activism Campaign comes to an end on Human Rights Day, here are some things we learned about combating GBV through connecting with various GroundBreakers around the world:
Hawa Mire serves as the Executive Director of the Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA) based in Canada. The FAFIA organization commits itself to “making international agreements on women’s human rights a reality in women’s everyday lives in Canada.” Mire’s discussion with GroundBreakers was centered around the fact that in order to eliminate GBV from our world, we need to focus more efforts on finding the root cause(s) of GBV so that we can work to eliminate the source of it. Without identifying root causes, we risk circling around the issue without effectively proposing solutions to combat GBV.
Over the course of the 16 days, we were also able to talk with Susan Nyabena, a project manager at mGBV based in Kenya. When talking with Nyabena, we gained more insight on how to effectively engage in conversation about GBV. Nyabena proposed to put men at the center of conversations regarding GBV to understand the role they may play in perpetuating GBV. When men speak out against issues of domestic violence and abuse, especially GBV, it shows solidarity with the fight to end GBV and also exemplifies a clear stance against GBV. Putting men at the center of each GBV conversation affords us the ability to ensure that men are not selectively avoiding learning and hearing about the issues of GBV.
Ren Chung, Deputy Executive Director at the Women’s Aid Organization in Malaysia, explained the importance of focusing on mental health and stability for survivors of GBV. There are little to no resources to support the mental wellbeing of survivors of GBV and the Women’s Aid Organization actively seeks to provide mental health resources for those who have experienced and survived abuse. Chung advocated for providing free shelter, crisis support, and mental health support for women and children who have survived and experienced domestic abuse and violence. While many of these may occur at a grassroots level with civic-oriented participation, Chung also strongly advocated for policy change and advocacy towards GBV and survivors of GBV. Without policy changes, survivors of GBV are not supported by our society and do not have the option to report their abusers to receive justice. Current policy is generally more excusing of the assailant and without policy that supports survivors, there will be increased violence towards women and girls with little to no legal repercussions.
GroundBreakers was also given the opportunity to speak with Franklin Ugobude, the Director of Media and Communications at The Consent Workshop based in Nigeria. Ugobude, in tandem with the organization, advocated for strong, effective, accessible, and regular youth-based consent training to stop the behavior from the start of it. Many cases of GBV are linked to assailants not recognizing harmful behaviors and a workshop dedicated to consent-training is an attainable start to dissolving the problem of GBV at its core.
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) explains that violence against women and girls is the most prevalent form of human rights violation but it remains cloaked in a culture of complacency and silence. GBV takes many forms that are not often recognized as forms of violence and abuse by our societies. UNFPA provides interactive maps and infographics that assess the views of people in countries that have prevalent GBV cases. Some survey data assesses the views of women who are affected by GBV and most of them do not recognize harmful and abusive behaviors as such. Globally, women and girls are not aware of all forms of abuse and violence, making them even more vulnerable to GBV.
GBV has always been and will always be a violation of human rights, even though it is not always regarded as such. Women were not fully aware of their statuses as individuals with legal identities until the late 1980s, causing a disparity in the understanding of social hierarchy and human rights. When we advocate to link the issue of GBV with human rights, we are afforded the ability to utilize human-rights resources to fight “The Shadow Pandemic” of GBV. Even though the 16 Days campaign has come to an end, you can still do your part and raise awareness for survivors of GBV by taking a stance on social media to stand in solidarity with the fight to end GBV, make the National Domestic Violence Hotline number known and accessible to your networks, donate money and resources to shelters that help survivors and those affected by GBV, organize events (in a socially-distanced, COVID-19-safe manner) to bring awareness and share information about GBV, and hold your friends and family accountable for the role they may play in trivializing GBV.
Listen to Hawa, Susan, Ren, and Franklin discuss their work and vision for the future by clicking here.
Sources
https://www.unfpa.org/gender-based-violence
