From 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day, the world is carrying out a 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. The link between the two dates is very symbolic and emphasizes that such violence against women is a violation of human rights. Over 5, 179 organizations in approximately 187 countries have participated in the 16 Days Campaign since 1991!

On the campaign’s website, you can find out about the themes and key activities of the campaigns of previous years and download a logo for the campaign in your language, as well as read this year’s theme announcement and download the action kit.

This year marks the 25th year of the campaign and the theme was chosen to be – “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All”. To read more about it, click here.

One of the major challenges to efforts to prevent and end violence against women and girls worldwide is the substantial funding shortfall. As a result, resources for initiatives to prevent and end violence against women and girls are severely lacking.

This year the UN Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women’s call for action is themed ‘Orange the World: Raise Money to End Violence against Women and Girls’, to amplify and address the funding shortfall.

You can download the fundraising action toolkit that will help you plan your organisation’s activity for the campaign here.

Visit UNWomen website for more information on the campaign and why money is an important issue, to take a quiz to test your knowledge on the topic and for ideas on what you could do.

The Call to action, which includes a lot of additional materials, information and ideas, can be found here.