The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence came out of the Global Campaign for Women’s Human Rights. In June 1991, the Center For Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) with participants of the first Women’s Global Institute on Women, Violence and Human Rights, a forum involving 23 women from 20 countries called for a global campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. The campaign would highlight the connections between women, violence, and human rights from 25 November to 10 December 1991. The time period encompassed four significant dates: 25 November, the International Day Against Violence Against Women; 1 December, World AIDS Day; 6 December, the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, when 14 women engineering students were gunned down for being feminists; and 10 December, Human Rights Day. The 2008 theme is “Human Rights For Women: Human Rights For All.”
The Australian Government is drafting a National Plan of Action that has the potential to change the lives of women and children around Australia who experience violence in their lives. The draft NPoA is due to be released in mid-December. Now is a critical time… we urge you to find out more about this process and contact your local MP to express your feelings about this issue. The Amnesty International Australia website is an excellent resource on this topic, covering the issues a NPoA needs to cover, how to contact your local MP to make the NPoA as effective as possible and about the 16 Days of Activism.
