The Global 16 Days Campaign is an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. The campaign runs every year from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day.
Originally called the "16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence" campaign, it was initiated in 1991 by the first Women's Global Leadership Institute, held by the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL), at Rutgers University.
Since 1991, more than 6,000 organizations from approximately 187 countries have participated in the campaign.
Significant dates
November 25 – International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
November 29 – International Women Human Rights Defenders Day
December 1 – World AIDS Day
December 3 – International Day of Persons with Disabilities
December 5 – Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development
December 6 – Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, which is observed as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada December 10 – International Human Rights Day and the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Themes
Every year, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign either introduces a new theme, or continues an old theme. The theme focuses on one particular area of gender inequality and works to bring attention to these issues and make changes that will have an impact. The Center for Women's Global Leadership sends out a "Take Action Kit" every year, detailing how participants can get involved and campaign in order to make a change. The first campaign theme in 1991 was entitled Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights, and women from around the world came together with the Center for Women's Global Leadership at the first International Women's Leadership Institute. The theme was used again in 1992. In 1993, the third campaign's second theme was Democracy in the Family, Democracy of Families, Democracy for Every Body. The 1994 theme brought back the first theme, but with a minor change. It was entitled Awareness, Accountability, Action: Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights. The 1995 theme, Vienna, Cairo, Copenhagen, and Beijing: Bringing Women's Human Rights Home, focused on four major conferences, including the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (September 1995), which was "the third major UN conference since the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna (1993)," and "...follows the International Conference on Population and Development (Cairo, 1994), and the World Summit on Social Development (Copenhagen, 1995)." As a follow-up to the 1995 themes and major conferences within recent years, the 1996 theme was Bringing Women's Human Rights Home: Realizing Our Visions. The 1997 Campaign was Demand Human Rights in the Home and the World, which was working towards the 1998 Global Campaign for Women's Human Rights. The theme for the campaign in 1998 was Building a Culture of Respect for Human Rights. The 1999 campaign theme was entitled Fulfilling the Promise of Freedom from Violence. In 2000, the theme was Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Campaign, in which participants would review the accomplishments of the last 10 years of the campaign and build upon those achievements. The center also asked participants to send in documentation of their work in order to initiate a project to document the efforts of the campaign. The campaign theme in 2001 was Racism and Sexism: No More Violence. The campaign theme in 2002 was Creating a Culture that Says No to Violence Against Women. The 2003 campaign, Violence Against Women Violates Human Rights: Maintaining the Momentum Ten Years After Vienna (1993–2003), was focused on reviewing changes that had occurred in the 10 years since the Vienna Declaration that was a result of the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna (1993) and the UN General Assembly's adoption of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women (2003). The 2004–2005 campaign was entitled For the Health of Women, for the Health of the World: No More Violence, particularly focused on the "intersection of violence against women and the HIV/AIDS pandemic."