General Questions About The Campaign
1. What is 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence?
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign originating from the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute sponsored by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991.
Participants chose the dates November 25 (International Day Against Violence Against Women) and December 10 (International Human Rights Day) in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights.
The 16 Days Campaign has been used as an organizing strategy by individuals and groups around the world to call for the elimination of all forms of violence against women using various methods.
Over 3,700 organizations in approximately 164 countries have participated in the 16 Days Campaign since 1991.
For more information about the 16 Days campaign, check out our introduction page and also visit the 16 Days website.
2. There are other women’s organisations/violence against women nonprofits who also chose to observe the 16 Days campaign with a special blogging campaign. What makes “16 for 16” different for the other 16 Days blogging campaigns?
There are indeed others who are spearheading special blogging campaigns to commemorate the 16 Days campaign.
The difference in our approach is that instead of the usual Op-Ed or essay format, we choose to focus on lists: lists of ideas, lists of practical actions, lists of inspiring people which revolve around specific VAW themes.
The idea is two-fold:
- To provide an easy-to-use spring board – and wellspring – of ideas and information for everyone from those who do not know anything about VAW to those who are already working in the cause. Lists make a difficult subject easier to navigate, easier to digest and easier to understand.
- To complement the other 16 Days of Activism blogging and micro-blogging campaigns already out there as well as other awareness-raising events and activities going on around the world.
3. Why are all the“16 for 16” blog articles presented as lists?
One of the reasons why it is difficult to get people behind the VAW cause is its sheer scale. With 1 in 3 women worldwide suffering from one form or another of VAW in their lifetimes, the person on the street who has no first-hand experience of or who has not witnessed incidents of VAW is likely to feel overwhelmed when faced with the issue.
Lists are a way of breaking this issue down into manageable and understandable proportions. By providing the global audience – many of whom will have never thought of supporting the cause – with feasible ideas and solutions that are bite-sized and easy to take action on, we hope to get many potential supporters on board the cause.
4. How are your 16 Female Role Models selected?
In the course of our daily work of researching, gathering and sharing news stories to raise awareness of VAW, The Pixel Project team takes note of news about and media profiles of outstanding women working in the movement to end VAW, often at great personal sacrifice and/or in spite of facing violence themselves.
So, beginning in 2010, we decided to highlight 16 of these women per year to help shine a light on the vital work that they do. As VAW is a global issue, we have made every effort to present a vibrant mix of nationalities, religions and countries for each group of Role Models.
As there are so many unsung heroes within the movement, we will continue to highlight as many of these extraordinary women as possible over the years to come.
5. How are the 16 films about VAW selected?
In the course of our daily work of researching, gathering and sharing news stories to raise awareness of VAW, The Pixel Project team takes note of films, documentary series, online shorts and television programmes that focus on aspects of VAW.
As VAW is a global issue, we make a concerted effort to select 16 films/shows/series that represent a wide cross-section of the global communities, cultures, religions and countries.
6. How are the 16 songs about VAW selected?
Our research team searches for suitable songs in terms of lyrics and music video content. Songs that qualify generally fulfil one or more of the following criteria:
- Songs about experiencing domestic violence or any other violence against women.
- Songs about escaping domestic violence or any other violence against women.
- Songs about witnessing domestic violence or any other violence against women
- Songs/anthems about women’s empowerment.
- Songs about hope in hopeless or bleak situations.
- Songs about overcoming great obstacles.
We then select 16 songs that, combined as a playlist, are wide-ranging in tone and approach to the entertwined issues to VAW, women’s empowerment and feminism.