Subject: [fem-women2000 559] Women's Globalnet #162: Day Against Gender Violence
From: iwtc <iwtc@iwtc.org>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 14:32:32 -0800
Seq: 559

IWTC WOMEN'S GLOBALNET
Initiatives and Activities of Women Worldwide
by Anne S. Walker

November 25, 2000

NOVEMBER 25: INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE 
ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

History of the Day
November 25 has been observed in Latin America and a growing number of 
other countries around the world as "International Day Against Violence 
Against Women" since it was first declared by the first Feminist 
Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogota, 
Colombia,18 to 21 July 1981. At that Encuentro, women systematically 
denounced gender violence from domestic battery to rape and sexual 
harassment, to state violence including torture and abuses of women 
political prisoners. 

The date was chosen to commemorate the lives of the Mirabal sisters and 
marked the day that the three Mirabal sisters from the Dominican 
Republic were violently assassinated in 1960 during the Trujillo 
dictatorship (Rafael Trujillo 1930-1961). The Mirabal sisters were 
political activists and highly visible symbols of resistance to 
Trujillo痴 dictatorship. They and their families were constantly 
persecuted for their outspoken as well as clandestine activities against 
the State. Over the course of their political activity, the women and 
their husbands were repeatedly imprisoned at different stages. In early 
November 1960, Trujillo declared that his two problems were "the Church 
and the Mirabal sisters." On 25 November 1960, the sisters were 
assassinated in an "accident" as they were being driven to visit their 
husbands who were in prison. The accident caused much public outcry, and 
shocked and enraged the nation. This brutal assassination was one of the 
events that helped propel the anti-Trujillo movement, and within a year, 
the Trujillo dictatorship came to an end.

The sisters have become a global symbol of the fight against gender 
violence and the victimization of women. They have also become the 
symbol of both popular and feminist resistance and have been 
commemorated many times in poems, songs and books. 

UNITED NATIONS RECOGNITION OF INTERNATIONAL DAY: 
On 19 October 1999, at the 17th meeting of the Third Committee during 
the 54th session of the UN General Assembly, the representative of the 
Dominican Republic on behalf of itself and 74 Member States introduced a 
draft resolution (document A/C.3/54/L.14) calling for the designation of 
25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence 
Against Women

On 17 December 1999, the UN General Assembly at its 83rd plenary meeting 
of the fifty-fourth session, on the basis of the Report of the Third 
Committee, adopted Resolution 54/134 on the International Day for the 
Elimination of Violence against Women.

NOVEMBER 25 to DECEMBER 10: SIXTEEN DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER 
VIOLENCE

In June 1991, the Centre for Women痴 Global Leadership (CWGL) with 
participants of the first Women痴 Global Institute on Women, Violence 
and Human Rights, a forum involving 23 women from 20 countries, called 
for an annual global campaign of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender 
Violence. The time period encompasses four significant dates: 25 
November, the International Day Against Violence Against Women; 1 
December, World AIDS Day; 6 December, the anniversary of the Montreal 
Massacre, when 14 women engineering students were gunned down in 
Montreal, Canada, for no other reason than that they were women; and 10 
December, Human Rights Day.

The year 2000 marks the tenth annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender 
Violence, now observed globally by activities at the local, national, 
regional and global level in demonstrations, protests, marches and 
vigils; photo, poster, art and book exhibitions; lectures, debates, 
testimonies and talks; petition drives; public education campaigns; 
concerts, plays and other theatre performances; street dramas and other 
community programmes; distribution of posters, stickers, leaflets, 
information kits and other publications. Over the years, the 16 Days 
Network has multiplied and now includes participation from more than 800 
organizations in over 90 countries.

(This information has been adapted from the web-site of the UN Division 
for the Advancement of Women (UN/DAW). For more information, visit their 
web-site at: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw or contact them at: 
UN/DAW, DC-2, UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA)

NEW IWTC WEB-SITE AT <http://www.iwtc.org>
Since the site was launched on November 20, 2000, almost 1,000 visits 
have been logged. A typical visitor examined 7.43 documents before 
leaving the site and a typical visit lasted for 1.38 minutes, with the 
longest visit lasting 38 minutes! The web server delivered 200 unique 
documents one or more times each.

All of this information is of great interest to us here at IWTC as we 
continue to make every effort to provide a new source of information for 
women activists worldwide. Many thanks for all of the responses received 
to date! Your ideas and comments have been taken very seriously. In 
fact, many of your suggestions have already been implemented and the 
site is updated almost daily with new information and new groups added. 
We hope to have some parts of the site available in Spanish soon. 

We look forward to more feedback from you in the days ahead!


IWTC Women's GlobalNet is a production of:

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WOMEN, INK.

For quality, cutting-edge publications on women and development by, for and about women worldwide, see Women, Ink's catalogue at our web site: <http://www.womenink.org>. 

Or contact Women, Ink. at 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA.  Tel: Yasna Uberoi (1-212) 687-8633 ext 212 or Mary Wong (1-212) 687-8633 ext 204. Fax: (1-212) 661-2704. E-mail: <wink@womenink.org>

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