Eliminate violence against women

‘The first step has been taken: the silence has been broken’.

In 1981 women’s activists marked 25 November as a day against violence after twenty-three activists from different parts of the world identified the need for ‘an increase in international awareness of the systemic nature of violence against women’ and for this violence to be seen as a violation of women’s human rights.

This was ratified on 17 December 1999, when the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The date originates from the brutal assassination of three political activists in 1960 – Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa Mirabal – sisters who lived in the Dominican Republic.

The sisters were assassinated on the orders of the ruler at the time, Rafael Trujillo: it  has been estimated that Trujillo’s authoritarian rule, which lasted from 1930-1961, was responsible for the death of more than 50,000 people, including 20,000 to 30,000 in the infamous Parsley Massacre in 1937.

The Mirabal sisters were members of a group called The Movement of the Fourteenth of June, opposing Trujillo’s regime and named after the date of a massacre which Patria had accidently witnessed.

Minerva and Maria Teresa were incarcerated and tortured on several occasions.

In 1960, the Organization of American States (OAS) condemned Trujillo’s actions and sent observers to the country. Minerva and Maria Teresa, imprisoned at that point, were freed, but their husbands remained in prison.

On November 25, 1960, Patria, Minerva, Maria Teresa and their driver Rafina de la Cruz, went to visit Patria and Minerva’s husbands. On the way home, they were stopped by Trujillo’s henchmen.

The sisters and the driver were clubbed to death. Their bodies were put in their Jeep, and the Jeep was run off the road so it would look like an accident.

Their tragic deaths inspired the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign set up in 1981, just one strategy which aims to build awareness about gender-based violence and facilitate networking among women leaders working in this area.

Each annual campaign starts on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Gender-Based Violence, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day – and that date was chosen to emphasise that gender-based violence is a violation of human rights.

For as Amnesty International (AI) has so succinctly put it: ‘Violence against women is a global outrage.

‘The experience or threat of violence affects the lives of women everywhere, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race and culture.

‘In the home and in the community, in times of war and peace, women are beaten, raped, mutilated and killed with impunity.’

AI published a book in 2004, called ‘It’s in Our Hands’, which explored the relationship between violence against women and poverty, discrimination and militarisation.

The book also highlighted the responsibility of the state, the community and individuals for taking action to end violence against women.

And now, this year, in her message for 25 November, UN Women’s executive director Michelle Bachelet is calling for bold action and decisive leadership to galvanise efforts to end the pandemic of violence against women and girls.

She pointed out that the silence has been broken; that one hundred and eighty-seven countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); that knowledge of the root causes of violence has increased, and that women, men and young people continue to mobilise in huge numbers against violence.

And she acknowledged that there are countless organisations whose members work tirelessly to support survivors and, in many countries, policy-makers have taken decisive action: to date 125 countries have laws that penalise domestic violence, a huge step forward from just a decade ago.

But, she said, it is not enough: we all must do better to protect women and prevent this pervasive human rights violation.

With up to seven in ten women suffering physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime and 603 million women living in countries where domestic violence is still not a crime – she is right: it is not – yet – enough.

Click here for more information about the 16 Days of Activism and events around the world.