Charlotte Bunch, founder and executive director of the center and professor of women’s and gender studies at Rutgers

Distressed over abuse and savagery against women worldwide, two dozen women from Fiji, Peru, Pakistan, the United States, and other nations met at Rutgers, determined to formulate a strategy for action. 

The year was 1991, and the effort they launched – 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence – has taken on a life and a vibrancy far beyond its creators’ wildest dreams.

The women were participating in the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, a project Rutgers’ Center for Women’s Global Leadership that has helped shape leadership in the human rights movement and includes more than 250 alumna worldwide.

In the 17 years since that convocation, more than 2,000 organizations in 150 countries around the globe have dedicated the period between November 25 and December 10 each year to understanding gender violence in a broader context. They define the problem in terms of grinding poverty, lack of health care, and inadequate food and shelter, in addition to acts of physical violence and harassment.

The timing is no coincidence. The 16 days bracket two milestones: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25 and International Human Rights Day on December 10.

 “The participants of the institute who initiated the campaign believed that symbolically linking the two days would make a statement that women’s rights are human rights and that violence against women constitutes violence against human rights,” said Charlotte Bunch, founder and executive director of the center and professor of women’s and gender studies at Rutgers.

Keely C. Swan is project coordinator for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. For her and other organizers of the Rutgers-generated initiative, the recent stoning of a 13-year-old in Somalia represents a harsh reminder that thousands of girls and women as far away as Botswana and Nepal – and as near as New Brunswick – live each day on the wrong side of fists, swords, and guns.

Through workshops, lectures, lobbying efforts, online discussions, and strategy-planning sessions, the 16 Days are designed to alert the world to the societal scourge and the activists who seek to erase it – often at great personal risk.

 “The wonderful thing about the campaign is that it has taken on a grassroots nature,” Swan said. “Organizations in each country, from the local level on up, plan their own events, holding fundraisers to counter domestic violence and violence against women in general.”

This year’s campaign also marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for which Rutgers has organized a yearlong observation coordinated by Joanna Regulska, dean of international programs.

One metric of the 16 Days’ success has been the growing number of organizations taking part. Swan pointed out that in 2008, Iraq and Grenada joined the list.

On the various Rutgers campuses, participants include the Women’s Center Defense Coalition, Radigals, Take Back the Night, RU Choice, Men for an End, Douglass Black Students Congress, Haitian Association, Latino organizations, and many other groups.

Among this year’s events, SCREAM  (Students Challenging Reality and Educating Against Myths) Theater will team with the Department of Sexual Assault Services and Crime Victim Assistant and Amnesty International for a series of street plays in front of Brower Commons Dining Hall on College Avenue, and the Department of Sexual Assault Services will create a space where people can paint wooden hearts to express their experiences.

A key element of the 16 Days this year is outreach to young activists. Swan pointed out ways that students can get involved, including:

• Gathering friends to discuss violence against women in their area.
•  Volunteering with an organization working to help women who have experienced violence.
•  Joining a youth listserv and holding a forum to raise awareness of the issue.
•  Speaking to a teacher, professor, or guidance counselor about conducting an information session.
•  Creating buttons, stickers, or T-shirts for a fundraiser, with proceeds going to survivors of violence.
•   Incorporating research on violence against women in school or university projects.
  
  

The center is part of a worldwide coalition that seeks to protect women human-rights defenders, who frequently find themselves the target of harassment or physical attacks – state-sponsored or otherwise – as a result of their advocacy.

“If you give them global recognition, more people will be aware of the situation and will be able to hold governments and communities accountable for their actions,” Swan said.

(For a look at 16 Day events around the world, e-mail 16days@cwgl.rutgers.edu, or visit www.cwgl.rutgers.edu.)