COMMENT: Let us go beyond the 16 days

Each year we commemorate 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence between 25 November and 10 December, yet soon after and even while we generate the much-needed awareness, there is another high-profile case of woman and child abuse.

While these commemorative periods are important in raising awareness of gender-based violence, our efforts to eradicate these social ills should not be confined to a certain time or space.

This means that as good citizens we must constantly be educating our young boys on how to be respectful towards women.

We must teach our young girls that abuse is not acceptable and is not love. We must support our shelters and empower, where we can, victims of domestic violence.

We must report gender-based violence where it becomes apparent to us.

This year is like no other. Even before Covid-19 hit, violence against women and children had reached pandemic proportions.

As the world retreated inside homes due to the lockdown measures introduced to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, reports showed an alarming increase in the already existing pandemic of violence against women and children.

We have also followed some gruesome killings of children by people close to them since the introduction of lockdown rules earlier this year.

Therefore, with the 2020 Campaign Theme: Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect in mind it is crucial to shun the unacceptable murders on children in this country and interpersonal violence on women.

We believe only by fighting the scourge of GBV at all levels of society, in a consistent and integrated manner, beyond the 16-day annual campaign will we eradicate all forms of violence against women and children.

Today and every day we must speak out forcefully for zero tolerance to all forms of violence against women and children. And we must recognise that this is not a woman’s issue—this is an issue that concerns us all.

Also, violence against women is not inevitable. Families and communities can change social norms and attitudes.

Governments can put strong laws in place, enforce them and bring perpetrators to justice.

Failure to protect women and children threatens future generations, as children who grow up in households with violence are more likely to experience or perpetuate violence.

It is our hope that both men and women will commit to stand up against violence, have conversations with friends and family about the issue, and seek out education about gender-based violence because violence against women and children continues to be an obstacle to achieving equality, development, peace as well as the fulfillment of women and children’s human rights.

All in all, the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – to leave no one behind – cannot be fulfilled without putting an end to violence against women and children.