16 Days of Activism for the Elimination of Gender Violence

November 25th has been designated by the United Nations as the Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The 16 days that follow, ending with International Human Rights Day on 10th December, are marked as the '16 Days of Activism for the Elimination of Gender Violence' and these dates, November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and December 10, International Human Rights Day, were chosen in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of women's' human rights.

This year, Glasgow City Council Cultural and Leisure Services and the Community Safety Partnership, alongside the Glasgow Violence Against Women Partnership, are co-ordinating a series of events citywide to mark these 16 days of activism with a theme of 'The Arts and Violence Against Women'. The arts can be a very powerful medium to use to raise awareness to the global pandemic of violence against women and there will be city centre events between 25th November and 10th December, plus a series of community based events which will be co-ordinated by locally based Community Safety Partnership development workers. Violence against women affects all our lives, not only the women against whom it is perpetrated, but also the development and health of their children, the social and economic prosperity of communities and the economic infrastructure of the city. It is vital that there is a programme of awareness raising on the devastating effects violence and abuse can have on the lives of women and children in our communities, and it is equally important that those communities challenge this violence.