2022 16 Days of Activism against gender-based violence

Will your church take part in the Global 2022 16 Days of Activism campaign?

The Global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence against women is a campaign run annually from November 25 to December 10. November 25 is the International Day against violence against women, and December 10 is International Human Rights Day and the campaign runs between these dates. This year the theme of the activism campaign is taking action to prevent femicide against women.

Femicide is generally understood as the killing of a female person on the basis of their gender. It can happen in the context of domestic and intimate partner relationships, including former relationships. It can happen outside that context and can also be perpetrated or tolerated by the State and its agents.

How big a problem is femicide?

In Australia

“On average, 125 females of all ages are murdered each year in Australia, with the greatest risk of homicide victimisation for females being between the ages of 21 and 23 years. Overwhelmingly, it is men who kill women— male offenders were responsible for killing approximately 94 per cent of adult female victims. However, the likelihood of a woman being killed by a male stranger is very slight—each year in Australia fewer than 14 women are killed by a man that they do not know. Nearly three in five of all femicides, defined here as the killing of women aged 15 years and over, occur between intimate partners, and nearly all of these are as a result of a domestic altercation. When a woman is killed, she is most likely to be killed in a private residence.”( Australian Institute of Criminology: Femicide: An Overview of Major Findings https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/tandi124.pdf)

Journalist Sherele Moody maintains an Australian femicide Map which helps us to remember the victims of femicide in Australia. (The Map is linked below)

Around the world, femicide statistics are shocking. The most recent data on global femicide is from just before the COVID Pandemic.

Some 47,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members in 2020. This means that, on average, a woman or girl is killed by someone in her own family every 11 minutes. Where trends can be calculated, they show that the magnitude of such gender-related killings remains largely unchanged, however, with only marginal increases and decreases over the past decade. (https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/UN_BriefFem_251121.pdf)

Can we stop Femicide? Femicide is often preceded by other forms of gender-based violence/abuse, threats, harassment and coercive control, which we can prevent. We can help to stop femicide before it happens by becoming aware and by recognising signs of abuse and responding appropriately. The 16 days of activism campaign is an opportunity for your church to educate themselves and to advocate for greater awareness and recognition of gender-based violence, particularly in relationships. It is an opportunity for you to advocate for ways we can prevent and respond to gender-based violence. And importantly, it is an opportunity for us to pray for prevention, for victims of gender-based violence and its perpetrators.

 ** If this article has raised issues for you and you’d like to talk to someone, please call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the Australian national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.**