Activism against women and children abuse : 16 days versus 365 days

Abstract

The year 2019 will mark 29 years of existence of the 16 days of activism for no violence against women and children. The campaign of 16 days of activism against women and children abuse was initiated in 1991 at the Rutgers University in the USA by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and it is now a global campaign. The intention of this campaign is to challenge all South Africans to help end this violence and to generate awareness of the negative effects that violence and abuse have on women and children. Each year the South African population participates in the campaign through generating an awareness following a specific theme that could be adopted in that year or in consecutive years. For example, a theme in 2017 was “Leave no one behind: End violence against women and children”. However, there is a challenge with regard to these themes because at times they become general and not specific to violence against women and children. That was seen in 1998, 1999, 2015 and 2016 because the themes were broad, general and not specific to women. For example, the 2015 theme was “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All”. Therefore this clearly shows that at times the country deviates from the purpose of this campaign against women and children abuse. This leads to a lack of awareness of women and children abuse.