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16 Days of Activism against

Gender-Based Violence

Menna-t-Allah Hossam Enan - Level 2 - Economics

menatallah.annan2020@feps.edu.eg
Lately, we have all been seeing people integrating
orange into their style, changing their profile pictures
to orange and using the hashtag #OrangeTheWorld on
their social media accounts.
All of this falls under the “Orange The World”
Campaign which takes place during the 16 Days of
Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
Now, there are many questions that may come to mind
after reading that. What is the 16 Days of Activism?
How did it start? What does it call for? What is Orange According to the International Women’s Development
The World? How can we participate? And what is Agency (IWDA), on the 25th of November 1960, sisters
Egypt’s stance on this issue? Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabal, three
What is the 16 Days of Activism Campaign? political activists who actively opposed the cruelty and
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based systematic violence of the Trujillo dictatorship in the
Violence is a global campaign that started in 1991, it Dominican Republic, were clubbed to death and
calls for an end to violence against women and girls. It dumped at the bottom of a cliff by Trujillo’s secret
takes place every year and begins on the 25th of police.

November, the International Day for the Elimination The Mirabal sisters became symbols of the feminist
of Violence Against Women and ends on the 10th of resistance, and in commemoration of their deaths 25
December, the Human Rights Day. Thus, highlighting November was declared International Day for the
that violence against women is a fundamental violation Elimination of Violence against Women in Latin
of human rights. America in 1980. This international day was formally
How did the campaign start? recognized by the United Nations in 1999.
There actually is a very interesting yet saddening In June 1991, the Centre for Women’s Global
reason for choosing the 25th of November as the Leadership (CWGL), alongside participants of the first
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Women’s Global Institute on Women, Violence and
against Women and why it was subsequently chosen as Human Rights, called for a global campaign of 16 Days
the starting date for the 16 Days of Activism. of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

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