Salma Rafifa Aprillya, Jakarta – The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign is a campaign to promote efforts to eradicate violence against women throughout the world. Each year, the campaign is commemorated by taking up a different theme.
This year, the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) is taking up the theme "Support victims, support the elimination of sexual violence: Act together, enact a legal umbrella to eliminate sexual violence which sides with the victims". The 16 day campaign will be an important moment to eliminate sexual violence against women.
Komnas Perempuan as a human rights institution in Indonesia is the prime mover behind the 16 day campaign which was first initiated in 1991 by the Women's Global Leadership Institute.
Komnas Perempuan has been involved in the campaign since 2001 and remains the principle motivator behind the campaign in several parts of Indonesia.
Campaign goals
Based on Komnas Perempuan data, between 2016 and 2021 there were 24,786 cases of sexual violence reported, so this campaign is important as one of the efforts to eliminate sexual violence against women.
According to the Komnas Perempuan website the 16 day campaign has six goals: Improving the understanding of gender-based violence, improving the handling of cases of sexual violence against women, building cooperation in efforts to eliminate violence against women, developing more effective methods in the movement to eliminate sexual violence, to demonstrate solidarity with women's groups, and to pressure the government to implement programs to eliminate violence against women.
Campaign strategy
Komnas Perempuan is not alone in pursuing efforts to eliminate violence against women. This requires cooperation between various social components, both from the government as well as the general public.
The strategy put together by Komnas Perempuan in the 16 day campaign is: Build a solidarity movement based on the awareness that violence against women is a human rights violations, promoting joint activities to guarantee better protection of victims of violence against women, and to invite everyone to be involved in efforts to eliminate violence against women.
In this campaign Komnas Perempuan will be cooperating with various organisations and social networks. The social network which is part of the hashtag #GerakBersama (#ActTogeter) will also take part in supporting the elimination of violence against women.
The 16 day campaign, which will begin on November 25 and run until December 10, will include several important days:
- November 25: International Day Against Violence Against Women
- November 29: International Women Human Rights Defenders Day
- December 1: World AIDS Day
- December 2: International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
- December 3: International Day of Persons with Disabilities
- December 5: International Volunteer Day
- December 6: International Day for Zero Tolerance of Violence Against Women Day
- December 9: International Human Rights Defenders Day
- December 10: International Human Rights Day
(azl/imk)
[Translated by James Balowski. Abridged slightly due to repetition. The original title of the article was "Kampanye 16 Hari Anti Kekerasan terhadap Perempuan, Hal Ini Wajib Diketahui".]
