This year marks the 30th anniversary of the global 16 Days Campaign to end violence against women. The campaign celebrated around the world begins today, November 25th, on the International Day Against Violence Against Women and runs until December 10th, International Human Rights Day.

Our world remains an unequal one, where sexual and gender-based violence continues to happen to women, girls but also men and boys. In South Sudan, Colombia, Burundi and Afghanistan, HealthNet TPO works with women and girls who face increasing physical, sexual and emotional violence daily.

This year, we are giving a platform to the incredible women and men who we work with in South Sudan and Colombia under the Women, Peace and Security programme, who support other women survivors of gender-based violence and are making steps to change harmful behaviours in their communities.

Join us this 16 Days. Together we can be accountable, take action, and end violence against women.

This 16 Days, we asked people in the streets of Amsterdam, what can be done to make women feel safer?

For 10 ways you can help end violence against women go to: UN Women

Sexual and gender-based violence towards women and girls is very high in Colombia and every year women face physical and sexual violence at the hands of their partners. 37% of women experience violence with an intimate partner at least once in their lifetime (UN Women), and over 50% of men admitted to abusing their female partner (UN Survey). Throughout Covid-19, violence against women in Colombia spiked as many women were forced to stay at home unable to escape violent partners.

As perpetrators of violence are not held accountable for their actions, many Colombian women are speaking out and demanding rights to truth and justice and provide strength to those women who still remain in violent or abusive relationships.

Sonia is one of these incredible women. At age 31, she has known violence all her life, growing up in an abusive household and surviving two abusive relationships before meeting her husband. The violence she endured made her reserved, unable to talk about her feelings or her experiences, which eventually led to depression. She found help through the Women who Advocate for Peace programme which helped her to come to terms with her experiences.

“Since joining the project I have changed. I started to meet more people and support I received through the programme helped me to understand my problems and find a solution”, Sonia said. “They taught me to resilient, to forgive the people who had hurt me and to let go”, she added.

Through the programme, Sonia became part of the citizen oversight called ‘Brave Women’, where she raises awareness of gender-based violence in her municipality in Meta.

“I have created strong bonds with the other Brave Women, we provide each other with support and counsel. We fight for women’s rights, for justice and to give other women the courage to escape abusive relationships. The work I do with the Brave Women is a legacy for my daughters. I am empowered and I dream of being able to create a foundation which aims to help women who suffer from any kind of violence. I dream of a community free from gender-based violence, a more inclusive and just community, a community with values and principles.”

On the 27th November, HealthNet TPO organised a county-wide celebration of the 16 days of activism to eliminate violence against women in Terekeka county. We partnered with South Sudan Red Cross (SSRC) and the County Department of Gender, Child and Social Welfare under the theme “Take Action, Be accountable and End Violence Against Women and Girls”.

The event brought together over 600 people with the guest of honor being the commissioner of Terekeka county, and began with a procession spearheaded by a group of traditional dancers and artists, and joined by primary school children and people from the community.

Speeches given throughout the day emphasised on holding perpetrators of violence accountable. The Chairlady of the Terekeka Women’s Association expressed her frustration that women continue to be excluded in all aspects of decision making and her disappointment in the rising number of rape incidents in the county.

Plays, drama and skits performed by local school children also expressed their thoughts about violence against girls highlighting inequality in their households, girls’ education, discrimination and forced child marriage.

The day's activities called upon all stakeholders to strengthen their systems and to remain committed to protecting women. It encouraged survivors of GBV and their families to speak up and report all forms of GBV to the nearest police and organisations that work towards ending violence against the women.

In his closing remarks, the Commissioner of Terekeka confirmed his commitment to women's rights in the County, “As long as I am still the commissioner of Terekeka County, I will work tirelessly to make sure women’s rights are respected and they are given equal opportunities here in Terekeka”. He thanked the organisers and urged the Humanitarian Organisations to continue to advocate and raise awareness to end GBV.

Recommended actions from the event included:
• Create safe spaces for women and girls to talk;
• Continue raising awareness in the communities on GBV;
• Implement existing GBV laws and regulations into practice by the Chiefs and police departments;
• Disseminate GBV referral pathways to the women who live in remote villages;
• Keep girls in school.

After the event, the crowd moved to Freedom Square to watch a football game organised by HealthNet TPO and SSRC. The all-girls game not only celebrated women and girls in sport, but demonstrated that women and girls can do everything that men and boys do.

As the Chairlady for the Women's Association in Terekeka County in South Sudan, Joyce sees first-hand the effects of violence against the women in her community. She spoke to us about widespread domestic violence, rape and harassment, and how understanding your rights as a women is the first step to ending violence against women.

Through awareness workshops and psychosocial support for survivors of violence, HealthNet TPO is supporting women to realise their rights and reclaim their space.

Luz Adriana Rodas works as part of the Women Who Advocate for Peace programme and is vice-president for the Departmental Network of Women’s Oversight Committees in Meta, Colombia. A network that supports survivors of gender-based violence.

“The fact that we as women have organised ourselves and have a functioning Departmental Network of Women’s Oversight Committees is a big achievement for us. We have established a support network so that women can report an incident. In many areas, we offer tailor-made comprehensive care packages for survivors of gender-based violence."

Luz expresses the importance of the UN Resolution 1325 for Women, Peace and Security. She began to apply the resolution in the spaces that she had arranged with the network. "The women who we worked with went from being female victims to being human rights defenders," expressed Luz. She recognises that the articulated work among women is another of the visible results of the implementation of the resolution. She considers 1325 as a tool that reduces the barriers imposed by machismo and patriarchy. However, stigmatisation and accusations for being a woman, a defender and a guardian, provoke reactions that hinder her work in peacebuilding.

More and more women across Colombia are willing to participate in processes that support the resolution and help other women survivors of gender-based violence. They have managed to gain spaces where, among other things, they formulate self-protection strategies. With her companions she created a security plan, which ranges from notifying a friend or a trusted person when they are going to leave a place, to joint communication with other institutions to remain protected and strengthened.

“I would recommend that women leaders and human rights defenders take ownership of the resolution,” says Luz, adding that it is important that this work reaches all territories in Colombia. 

Finding solutions to prevent violence against women are often placed on women themselves. Women are too often blamed for being attacked and safety measures to prevent attack are placed on the actions of women rather than men, including ‘don’t walk alone at night’. Supporting women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) through psychosocial support allows women the space and opportunity to heal. However, to tackle the root cause of SGBV, men and boys must be included. The social and cultural norms where boys learn behaviours that promote gender inequality, sexism and violence against women must be addressed and we must offer new perspectives on masculinity and allow men and boys to become part of the solution.

In South Sudan, conflict and violence has scarred the country for decades. A breakdown of social structures, lack of law enforcement and loss of opportunities for both men and women have caused violence against women and girls to become norm. By engaging with men and boys as well as women and girls, we can begin to breakdown harmful gendered norms and allow women and girls safe spaces to express their concerns within unequal households.  

“HealthNet TPO facilitates a male engagement workshop with men and their spouses in Terekeka County. The workshop was developed from experiences working with women that a changed attitude and transformed mindset will be more sustained when it is built from within family foundations, where everyone matters.” said Boniface Duku, HealthNet TPO Project Officer in South Sudan. The initial workshop, attended by 10 young couples, was a safe space to discuss gender equality in the home and gender-based violence. Many women expressed they wanted their husbands to see them as a team and support them where necessary. The men in attendance committed themselves to share roles equally in the home and showed interest in changing the narrative by putting girls to school which is something that is not common in Terekeka County.  

 “I am sorry, I have not been listening to you and putting too much on you, things will change from today.”  

Ongoing stigmas and reactions by other men in the community highlight the need for community-wide change. One man expressed his fear of stigma, “I want to help my wife, I want to clean the compound when I see her busy cooking, I want to let her work if she wants to, but my peers are always going to mock me and call me names, telling me I am controlled by my wife". All 20 participants accepted to become ambassadors in their community, to help discourage such stigmas, stereotypes of men, and encourage mutual respect and an end to violence. They designed a work-plan on how to start creating GBV awareness and promote gender equality in their own villages, holding monthly couples’ forums in different neighbourhoods and acting as GBV-watch in their community to report any cases of GBV and mental health issues to the Psychosocial Focal Point's, who provide care for such cases.  

Throughout the world, similar initiatives focus on involving men in advocating for gender equality. MenEngage Alliance, ProMundo, or Rwanda Men’s Resource Centre (RWAMREC), for example, organise education and mentoring programmes, lectures and violence prevention for the men and boys in their local communities. They strive to redefine manhood as the ability to build relationships based on respect and equality, the strength to ask for help and to speak out against violence. By spreading this positive masculinity and questioning harmful gender norms, men will foster a better relationship with themselves and those around them which will ultimately reduce gender-based violence.  

Now that the 16 Days of Activism has come to a close, we must continue to fight for the elimination of gender-based violence every day.

Day 17 is a spoken word poem written and performed by South Sudanese spoken word poet and award winning author, Ade.