6. Call for better responses and services

Services for women and girls experiencing violence can be the difference between life and death.

This means that shelters, hotlines, counseling and all support for survivors of gender-based violence need to be available for those in need, even during crises and emergencies.

Every year, the 16 Days of Activism campaign calls for united, global action to end all forms of violence against women and girls.

Join us in calling on governments to bridge funding gaps to address violence against women and girls, ensure essential services for survivors of violence are maintained during crisis and conflict, implement prevention measures, and invest in adapting and improving life-saving services for women and girls in diverse contexts.

Get more involved by volunteering at a local women’s shelter, donating clothes or supplies, or training to become a crisis counselor.

7. Demand more data

To effectively combat gender-based violence, we need to understand the issue. 

Relevant data collection is key to implementing successful prevention measures and providing survivors with the right support. And yet the collection of sex-disaggregated and other crucial gender data remains a low priority for governments.

As gender-based violence has spiked due to COVID-19, climate change and other crises, the gaps in gender sensitive data collection have become more glaring than ever. Call on your government to invest in the collection of data on gender-based violence.

8. Push for stronger laws

We are still 21 years away from comprehensive laws banning violence against women to be in place globally.

The world needs stronger protection mechanisms to prevent and eliminate violence, harassment, threats, intimidation, and discrimination against women human rights defenders and women’s rights advocates and activists.

Find out about the laws in your country: https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/en. Call on your government to strengthen legal frameworks, and help raise awareness about the gaps. Start or join a protest, support a legal advocacy group, and educate yourself on the stances of political candidates and representatives.

9. Support women’s leadership

During COVID-19, women were vastly underrepresented on recovery task forces—a disparity reflected in the insufficiency of government responses to gender-specific issues like heightened domestic violence.

The same is true for climate action, peacebuilding, and a whole host of other issues: when women aren’t at the table, their voices aren’t being heard. That makes it all too easy for decision-making bodies to overlook crucial gaps in policies and financing.

Women’s representation in decision-making spaces helps to ensure that the needs of women and girls are front and center—in crisis responses, humanitarian and peace agreements and policies of all kind. At the same time, women leaders face heightened risk of violence: across 5 regions, 82 per cent of women parliamentarians reported experiencing some form of psychological violence during their terms. 

Call for women’s increased representation in leadership, and for heightened protections for women in positions of power. Support women political candidates and women-led organizations and companies. Or take matters into your own hands—become the woman leader you want to see in the world.

10. Build solidarity with other movements

We’re stronger when we work together.

Violence against women and girls is inherently connected to other forms of harm and injustice, including racism, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, poverty, and climate change.

Strengthen the fight against gender-based violence by getting involved in other social and political movements, and getting activists from those movements involved in yours.

Together, we can resist the rollback on women’s rights, amplify the demands of feminist movements across the world and push forward to end violence against women and girls once and for all.