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: International Women's Tribune Centre 777 United Nations Plaza 3rd Floor New York, NY 10017, USA Tel: (1-212) 687-8633 Fax: (1-212) 661-2704 Email: <iwtc@iwtc.org> You can subscribe to this list at any time by sending a blank message to iwtc-womensglobalnet-subscribe@igc.topica.com You can unsubscribe to this list at any time by sending a blank message to iwtc-womensglobalnet-unsubscribe@igc.topica.com 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> Women, Ink. is a project of IWTC ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A http://www.topica.com/t/17 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics _________________________________________________________________________ fem-Women2000@jca.apc.org for Women 2000, UN Special Session on Beijing+5 Searcheable Archive http://www.jca.apc.org/fem/news/women2000/index.shtml visit fem-net HomePage for other mailing lists http://www.jca.apc.org/fem