16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence 2021

Annual international campaign from 25 November to 10 December

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. It was started by activists at the inaugural Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991 and continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. It is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.

In support of the #16Days campaign, FUTURES has been advocating for several important pieces of legislation, participating in conferences and interviewing incredible advocates to shed light on the essential mission of empowering women internationally.

Legislation

• GIRLS IN SCHOOL ACT  – This bill is designed to ensure that U.S. foreign assistance addresses the barriers that keep more than 130 million school-aged girls around the world out of education. We are proud to be one of sixty organizations urging the House Foreign Affairs Committee to markup the legislation and pass it out of committee. Girls’ education is the foundation upon which girls can grow to become empowered women—economically or otherwise—and has the potential to add $92 billion to the economies of low- and middle-income nations, cut child deaths by 50%, reduce child marriage by 66%, and decrease violent conflict by 37%. 
• Safe From the Start Act – Eliminating violence against women starts where they’re most impacted and affected: humanitarian crises. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by conflict zones, natural disasters and other humanitarian crises.  Click here to read more about how Safe from the Start includes the voices of women and girls in humanitarian aid decisions, and look out for ways YOU can make a difference keeping women and girls #SafefromtheStart.
•  GIRLS LEAD ACT –  Supporting Girls’ Leadership, Engagement, Agency, and Development, The Girls LEAD Act aims to improve the effectiveness of U.S.-led democracy and governance initiatives, as well as increase girls’ ability to engage in decision-making processes affecting their lives and their communities, ultimately fostering new generations of empowered women leaders.

Advocacy – contact your members of Congress TODAY with 3 clicks

• Girls LEAD Act

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/girls-lead-act/ 

  Take action here

• Safe from the Start Act

   

  Help us formalize and advance the efficacy of the Safe from the Start program, which works to prevent gender-based violence (GBV) in humanitarian emergencies and protect survivors or those at risk. If you could protect those most vulnerable against assault, trafficking and gender based-violence, wouldn’t you?

  Send a message to your members of Congress and ask them to cosponsor

   

  Take action here

   

   

   

Events

• The International Conference in Slovenia on COVID-19 and Gender-based Violence –  On Monday day 5 of the 16 Days of Activism our very own Senior International Policy Advocate presented at the International Conference in Slovenia on COVID-19 and Gender-based Violence. Leila said, “The theme of essential services in this work is going to be life saving. In the outset of the pandemic, services provided for those experiencing gender-based violence were not categorized as essential services, one of the biggest lessons learned in all our efforts.”