Honoring the Transnational Activists and Activism Behind the First 16 Days Campaign
At a time where there is so much effort to attack and divide, I want to celebrate the expansive and transnational campaign behind the original 16 Days Campaign launched in Zimbabwe in 1992.
As the activists who developed the campaign explain, “The growth of the anti-violence against women movement provides one of the best illustrations of how local activism can translate into global action. The signatures that activists collected at the local level during the early years of the 16 Days Campaign helped to change the trajectory of the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights and subsequent discussions about women and human rights.”
I first learned about the 16 days campaign as part of organizing by those engaged in advocacy with the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. At the time I was working with two WPS focused organizations, PeaceWomen of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the Global Network for Women Peacebuilders (GNWP).
I learned that much of the WPS agenda is still focused on addressing the crisis of targeted gendered violence in conflict. In my advocacy work I argue that this violence also impacts lesbian, bisexual and transgender women, as well as the broader LGBTQ community.
This violence is global. As the founders of the campaign explain: “While violence against women takes different forms according to its cultural context, the problem exists everywhere and working on the issue offers unique opportunities to build bridges across cultures, to learn from both similarities and differences, and to link strategies globally.”
One of the people who participated in the launch of the first 16 days campaign was Charlotte Bunch, a feminist author and lesbian organizer and the Founding Director of the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University.
I had the opportunity to interview Bunch in 2012. She spoke about her work with the CWGL and the campaign, explaining that one of the key questions driving the advocacy was: “What is security and what do we think security means?” This continues to be a central question for activists engaged with #16days today.
Bunch continued in her reflections about future directions for the WPS agenda, “To move forward we need a better economy, but we also need a rethinking about what makes us secure in the world. We should all know by now that military doesn’t produce security it only produces more wars but people still think that having the biggest military is what makes you secure.”
Thousands of organizations in over 172 countries have participated in the 16 Days Campaign since the initial events over the past three decades. The accessible form of advocacy continues to allow people to collaborate globally, and across issue areas to highlight how gendered violence continues to be the most pressing issue in women’s lives. Whether as a way to highlight lesbian, bisexual and trans women facing forced marriage, to bring attention to the violences against women in Gaza, or for mobilizing action for disabled women in Belfast, the campaign continues to be a way to connect the local to the international.
To conclude, I list and honor those who were part of the initial campaign:
1991 Women's Global Leadership Institute Participants: Shamima Ali (Fiji Islands) ▪ Ana Carcedo (Costa Rica) ▪ Gina Cedemanos (Peru) ▪ Jana Chrzova (Czechoslovakia) ▪ Roberta Clarke (Trinidad & Tobago) ▪ Simone Grilo Diniz (Brazil) ▪ Woo-Seoup Han (Korea) ▪ Lori Heise (USA) ▪ Magally Huggins (Venezuela) ▪ Hina Jilani (Pakistan) ▪ Ebon Kram (Sweden) ▪ Pat Mahmoud (Nigeria) ▪ Rana Nashashibi (Palestine) ▪ Monica O’Connor (Ireland) ▪ Lata P.M. (India) ▪ Annette Pypops (Canada) ▪ Qiyamah A. Rahman (USA) ▪ Nilda Rimonte (USA) ▪ Syarifah Sabaroedin (Indonesia) ▪ Felicia Sakala (Zambia) ▪ Marsha Sfeir (Canada) ▪ Siriporn Skrobanek (Thailand) ▪ Everjoice Win (Zimbabwe); CWGL Participants: Rosa Briceño ▪ Lourdes Bueno ▪ Charlotte Bunch ▪ Roxanna Carrillo ▪ Susana Fried ▪ Niamh Reilly ▪ Susan Roche ▪ Hei Soo Shin.
By: Jamie J. Hagen, Lecturer in Global Politics, University of Manchester,
Co-Convenor of the Queer Justice, Peace and Security Community of Practice