16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: ActionAid urges governments to end all forms of femicide.
PRESS RELEASE
This year, the campaign continues with its theme of #EndingFemincide by raising awareness of all forms of gender-related killings of women and girls and calls for legally binding accountability instruments applicable to businesses and corporations whose operations propagate gender-based violence.
ActionAid, in unison with country offices, partners, and feminist movements, will support the inclusive convergence of voices and global activities to demand urgent action and accountability to end femicide and all forms of violence against women. Violence against women is a worldwide pandemic that connects to multiple ongoing global crises and demands urgent action. The campaign aims to pressure governments to introduce and tighten laws to eliminate violence against women.
New UN reports reveal that an intimate partner or relative killed approximately 45,000 women and girls in 2021. This alarming figure means that more than five women and girls were killed every hour by a family member. The report also indicated that African women and girls are at a high risk of gender-related killings by family members.
Wangari Kinoti, Global Women’s Rights and Feminist Alternatives Lead, ActionAid International, said “Eliminating femicide and other forms of gender-based violence requires transformative structural shifts anchored in cross-movement and cross-issue organizing. This cannot be done in a day or even 16 days! Our collective efforts are required all year round to protect, respect, and advance the rights of women and girls. We are calling on allies, feminists, partners, and friends to tweet their photo wearing the colour purple and holding up a sign with the hashtag #EndFemicide and amplify femicide awareness.”
ActionAid joins communities at large, organisations, and movements at all levels to unite and sign the petition calling on the United Nations to declare December 6 -as the International Day to End femicide.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 15 million people living in more than 40 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.
To contact the ActionAid press office email media-enquiries@actionaid.org.uk or contact Vanessa Power, Media Officer at vanessa.power@actionaid.org