What is 16 Days of Activism?

Timetable of Mothers’ Union 16 Days Events

Other events will be confirmed closer to the time. All events will be via Facebook Live and available on You Tube.  

What is Gender-Based Violence?

• Gender-based violence (GBV) is any act of violence or abuse which is directed at an individual or group on the basis of their gender.
• It is important to note, therefore, that both women and men can be made targets of gender-based violence. However, it has been widely acknowledged that the majority of persons affected by gender-based violence are women and girls, as a result of unequal distribution of power in society between women and men. Further, female victims of violence suffer specific consequences as a result of gender discrimination.
• Gender‐based violence against women is violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately.
• “Violence against women” is understood as a violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women. It is all acts of gender‐based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.
• Violence against women and girls is rooted in unequal power relations between men and women, and the underlying beliefs and values which accompany this, often manifesting as a means of control.
• Gender-based violence occurs in every culture and context around the world. It can be carried out by a wide range of people, including: partners; family members; those in the community; strangers; friends; those in positions of authority; armed groups; and the state.

• In the year ending March 2019, in the UK and Ireland, 2.4 million adults aged 16 to 59 had experienced domestic abuse within the last year
• In the UK and Ireland data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show 80 women were killed by a current or ex-partner between April 2018 and March 2019 – a 27 per cent increase on the year before.
• The UK police receive a call every minute about domestic abuse, 89 percent are about a woman being abused by a man
• 20% of children in the UK have lived with an adult perpetrating domestic violence
• The overwhelming majority of domestic abuse cases are not prosecuted; in the UK only 8% of domestic abuse-related crimes reported to the police will end in conviction
• Globally, only 1% of adolescent girls who have experienced forced sex, reach out for professional help
• Only 77 countries have legislation that explicitly criminalises marital rape
• 23 percent of women in high income countries, 25 percent in the western region and 8 percent of women in the south-east Asia are abused each year
• At least one in three women globally will experience some form of gender-based violence at some point in their lifetime
• Violence against women can damage the health and wellbeing of a women from physical health consequences such as chronic pain syndromes, induced abortions and disabilities to mental health consequences such as PTSD and depression
• It’s estimated 650 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday. Child marriage often results in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupts schooling, limits the girl’s opportunities and increases her risk of experiencing domestic violence.
• In the EU, 1 in 10 women have experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 15, and 1 in 20 have been raped. Just over 1 in 5 women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from either a current or previous partner
• Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, car accidents, war and malaria

• Intimate partner violence, which can include a range of sexual, psychological and physical coercive acts used against adult and adolescents (particularly women and girls) by a current or former intimate partner;
• domestic violence;
• mental abuse;
• psychological violence, including threats, humiliation, mocking and controlling behaviours;
• emotional abuse;
• economic violence, such as denying access of the victim to financial resources, property, healthcare, education, or the labour market, and denying them participation in economic decision-making;
• sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault and harassment in all public and private spheres of life;
• physical violence;
• crimes committed in the name of so-called ‘honour’;
• institutional or structural violence, which includes any form of structural inequality or institutional discrimination that maintains a woman in an inferior position to other people within her family, household or community;
• forced marriage
• child marriage;
• female genital mutilation;
• female infanticide and sex-selective abortion;
• human trafficking, slavery, and sexual exploitation;
• stalking and harassment;
• emerging forms of violations, such as online harassment and abuse, various forms of sexual abuse instigated or facilitated through the use of information and communication technologies, stalking, and bullying.