16 Days Campaign Against Gender Violence
Media monitoring and the ‘Silent Silhouettes’ Campaign
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign that began on November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women and ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day.
World AIDS Day also falls within this period, on December 1.
Violence against women is a human rights issue. It is a universal problem that is often accompanied by a culture of silence and denial and defended by traditions and religious canons. The spread of HIV and AIDS is also often related to gender violence.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
(1) Media monitoring during the 16 Days
WACC’s partner the Southern African Media and Gender Institute (SAMGI) in Cape Town monitored coverage of HIV and AIDS in the local media from a gender lens during the 16 days of Activism Against Gender Violence in 2007. The monitoring found that the media did not focus enough on HIV and AIDS especially during the 16 Days of Activism. In news coverage, no helpline contact details were given for people living with HIV and AIDS and no new interesting or informative news was provided. Further, no link was made between gender based violence and HIV and AIDS throughout the period.
One objective of the SAMGI project was to ensure women were aware of the representation of their issues in the media, looking particularly at the intersection of gender-based violence and HIV and AIDS.SAMGI applied the monitoring report as a tool to lobby media to respond more effectively and responsibly to HIV and AIDS.
What you can do
Put on a gender lens and monitor your local media on coverage of issues important to you. Select a day to monitor how the media covers instances of gender violence "The story of violence against women needs to be told with sensitivity, professionalism and depth," says International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) "Too often media choose sensationalism and stereotypes instead of providing realistic, inclusive and accurate reporting of the horrifying scale of this problem." IFJ outlines 10 steps for reporting on violence against women - from ensuring that accurate, non-judgmental language is used, to treating the survivor with professionalism and respect.
Use the results of your monitoring to write to the editor commending them for professional coverage or pointing out coverage that falls short of respect for women’s human rights.
Share your experience with us.
(2) Advocacy campaigning – The ‘silent silhouettes’
Silent Silhouettes is a world wide initiative to raise awareness about domestic violence.Activists place life-size cardboard silhouettes of silent witnesses to violence in public places. The silent witnesses are women – a daughter, sister, mother, friend – who has lost her life to gender violence. The silhouettes bear the name, age and testimony of how she became a silent witness.
The Network of NGOs of Trinidad and Tobago for the Advancement of Women in collaboration with UNIFEM and the University of the West Indies is staging a moving ‘silent silhouettes’ exhibit in several locations in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Stephanie Leitch and Michelle Isava who are hosting the exhibit affirm that ‘it is a site specific installation that can not exist without its presence in public places for the spontaneous interaction of passers-by. This kind of art is extremely important as it can function as a social intervention; in the public sphere all are entitled to its experience and domestic violence is an issue that concerns us all’.
What you can do
The silent silhouettes bring domestic violence out of private spaces into the public arena. Plan a silent silhouette campaign in a public area in your community as a powerful reminder that domestic violence concerns us all.
Advocacy succeeds when a problem is presented as pertaining to the wider group or society, rather than as a concern of isolated individuals or groups. Advocacy campaigns draw the attention of public authorities when the problem is presented as a policy issue, backed with figures and statistics to make the case. In South Africa a researcher used mortuary admissions and court records to conclude that a woman dies every six hours from intimate partner abuse. Let the silent witnesses speak to policy by including the statistics on the silhouettes.
Share your experience with us.
All stories shared will be posted here at the end of the 16 Days.
