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16 days of activism against gender violence
MS-Zimbabwe
By Claudia Juhl, MS-Zimbabwe Communication Worker
December 15, 2004

http://zimbabwe.ms.dk/articles/16days.htm

More than 35 local organisations participated in the 16 days campaign against gender-based violence reaching out to thousands of women, men and children across Zimbabwe. MS-Zimbabwe supported this thriving initiative in cooperation with Women's Coalition, a national network of women's organisations taking a lead in the campaign.

The 16 days of "Activism Against Gender Violence" from November 25th to December 10th mark the anniversary of the 1993 UN World Conference on Human Rights, when violence against women was formally recognized as a violation of women's human rights. Violence against women implies any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women. This includes threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in private or public life.

In Zimbabwe gender-based violence and abuse continues to cause severe sufferings to many girls and women. The current economic crisis and increasing levels of poverty aggravate the hardship of women, as it is the responsibility of the female to secure the survival of the household. Furthermore research has shown that rising unemployment and poverty are the main causes of violence, not least at domestic level.

The HIV/Aids epidemic also adds an extra dimension to the problem of gender-based violence, because violence or the fear of violence hinders women's ability to prevent transmission and infection. It also impedes their access to a range of services, including testing and treatment. In Zimbabwe like in other countries hard hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic women and girls bear the biggest burden. Nearly 65% of all HIV positive people aged between 15 and 49 are women. Unequal rights to property mean that women may be forced to leave their homes when widowed or diagnosed HIV-positive making them very vulnerable to poverty. Furthermore the burden of caring for the sick also predominantly falls on women.

With the aim to raise awareness about the challenges that women in Zimbabwe face today, Women's Coalition together with its membership and other stakeholders (including government, churches, men's organisations and UN agencies) embarked on an extensive campaign to highlight women's rights in commemoration of the 16 days. The theme for this year was: "Unite for Peace: Combat Violence against Women and HIV/Aids." The main activities comprised awareness raising marches, media campaigns, production of information materials and set up of awareness raising tents. MS-Zimbabwe contributed with 50,000,000 ZDW to the implementation of these activities, which turned out to bring on a number of inspiring success stories.

Awareness Raising
The awareness tents were a major success, with a number of 7500 people visiting the tents in Harare and Bulawayo alone. People came to seek information on gender violence and receive written material to take home. The most interesting feature was that the majority of people entering the tents were men and boys whereas women seemed more hesitant to come inside. Yet the tents served a very important purpose for females, as a number of the tents were visited by women who came to report cases of abuse. These women had come to the right place, because tent attendants could give them advice and refer them to organisations, where they could get more help and assistance.

In some towns activists arranged trips to the rural areas and the residential suburbs in order to reach out to more people. In some cases they were met by chiefs and other officials who thanked them for bringing the message of peace to their homes. These outreach campaigns included a variety of activities such as speeches, drama and distribution of information material and were generally highly appreciated by the local communities who came to watch and participate.

The media campaigns included production of TV shows and TV discussion forums, radio programmes and newspaper supplements on gender-based violence and women's rights issues. Education materials such as T-shirts, posters, ribbons, booklets, email information and flyers were produced and distributed in conjunction with the activities taking place. The activists furthermore arranged for drama, workshops and open debates to inform and educate the public.

Successful Marches
Despite difficulties to get permission to carry out marches the police finally granted permission for the planned marches in the five major cities of Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru, Masvingo and Mutare. Participants describe the marches as a blessing in disguise, not least the march held in Chitungwiza, the largest high-density suburb of Harare. Here a total of 250 women, men and children joined the march held on December 6. The organisers and participants describe the march as a re-invigorating event as they managed to communicate with many people passing by and distribute education material to everyone they talked to.

All marches were accompanied by speeches and talks about issues concerning threats of violence and abuse against girls and women as well as distribution of information materials. In Chitungwiza one of the members of Women's Coalition held a moving speech about abuse and violation of girls' rights. Immediately after her presentation eight children and young girls came forward to report rape. They secretly went to the speaker and told her about their experiences of being raped and abused by family members and neighbours. One little girl reported that the man who had a tuck shop near their house raped her at every opportunity. Later a young man also approached the organisers to tell them about the sexual abuse that his sister was a victim of.

Despite the sadness and misery of the reported cases these immediate reactions from the community clearly demonstrates the importance and positive gains of awareness raising campaigns. The organisers stated that these experiences filled them with new energy as they get to see how information can make a difference to help victims of gender based violence. Furthermore the marches demonstrated that there is still need to do a lot in terms of preventing violence against women and children. In the other towns the marches also encouraged girls and women to report their experiences of abuse and violence.

Advocating for a new legislation against gender violence
During the 16 days civic society led by the Women's Coalition ran a petition for the passing of the Domestic Violence Bill. This bill, which opposes gender violence and implies important clauses on the protection of women's rights, has been on hold for the past four years. With the levels of gender violence seemingly getting higher and the HIV/Aids pandemic infecting and affecting mostly women, this most important bill is needed sooner to give legal protection to the victims of gender violence and abuse. All the organisations that took part in the 16 days collected signatures for the petition. As a symbolic gesture the petition was handed over to the Minister of Parliament and Legal Affairs on the last day of the campaign conveniently coinciding with the International Day of Human Rights.

Making a difference
Looking back at the 16 days of extensive activism the campaign evidently constitutes a number of inspiring successes. Thousands of people were reached with information in connection with the multiple activities taking place during the course of the campaign. The large number of visitors and participants from surrounding communities show the high level of interest and proves the benefits of addressing the problem of gender based violence and abuse in public. Most encouraging were the number of women and girls voluntarily reporting personal cases of sexual abused, beating and other violations of their rights.

Women's Coalition together with the other participating organisations gained a lot of new motivation through the campaign. The positive events experienced during the 16 days will obviously inspire them to continue and intensify the fight against abuse and violation of women's rights in Zimbabwe.

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