Campaigns to End Violence against Women and Girls - Virtual ...

effort in their own countries (on key trafficking-related dates for example) using a
number of tools and resources provided including factsheets, brochures, and a PSA.
In April 2010, Mexico joined the international campaign by launching its own national
version – ‘Corazón Azul’. Over a dozen important buildings were lit up in blue across
Mexico City in a symbolic act to raise awareness about the campaign. A pact (in
Spanish), was also developed, which is a list of ten promises that act as guiding
principles for those joining the campaign.
Case study: Sixteen Days of Activism to End Gender Violence
Arguably, the best-known global campaign to end VAW is the Sixteen Days of
Activism to End Gender Violence. The case study below is reproduced and slightly
adjusted from the Communication Initiative Network, a rich source of information and
examples on communication for social change.
Background: In 1991, international participants in the United States-based Center for
Women's Global Leadership (CWGL)'s first annual Women's Global Leadership Institute
created an annual international campaign to communicate this message: violence
against women violates human rights. They chose to symbolically link November 25 th
(International Day Against Violence Against Women) and December 10 th (International
Human Rights Day), designating the days in between the "16 Days of Action against
Gender Violence", an organizing strategy to call for elimination of all forms of VAW
(whether in the public or private sphere). 20 years later more than 2,800 organizations in
156 countries have participated in the global campaign, and the issue of gender-based
violence has garnered a significant amount of international attention.
International Day Against Violence Against Women was first declared in 1981 by the first
Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean to commemorate the violent
assassination of the Mirabal sisters on that date in 1960 by the dictatorship of Rafael
Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. As a result of extensive organizing by women’s rights
organizations, the United Nations General Assembly officially designated November 25 th
as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women [A/RES/54/134] in
1999.
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Campaigns December 2011