16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence
The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence are an important opportunity to raise awareness and call for changes at an international, national and local level to end violence against women and girls.
The campaign runs from 25th November (UN Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women) to 10th December (Human Rights Day) 2023.
What is our call?
We want to encourage as many young people as possible to take part this year in the 16 Days of Activism.
To this end we are inviting all secondary schools to create a campaign to raise awareness of and call for change to end violence against women and girls.
What do you need to do?
- Gather a group of interested young people
- Create an action plan for a campaign/series of activities to take place during the 16 Days of Activism
- Collaborate with relevant groups across the school (where they exist) e.g. Equally Safe at School, MVP mentors, Equality Group
- Complete the Action Plan on Microsoft Forms by Wednesday 1st November here: https://forms.office.com/e/cGuN3XnYka which asks about your aims, actions and ways in which you will gather evidence of impact
- Consider how you can partner with other agencies e.g. Women’s Aid, White Ribbon, Rape Crisis Prevention Worker and your Local Authority VAWG lead (if unsure who this is, check with LA MVP co-ordinator)
- Think about how you might involve all members of the school community and the wider school community e.g. parents, youth groups
- Consider how you will publicise your campaign, including sharing your work with the hashtag: #ScotSchools16Days
- Run your campaign during the 16 Days of Activism
What will we do?
We will promote a range of the activities across social media. We will arrange virtual or in-person visits to a small number of establishments to highlight the campaigns. We will showcase some of the work on our MVP and Equally Safe at School websites.
We will share the work with Scottish Government.
We can’t wait to hear from you!
For further information, please email: lauren.nelson@educationscotland.gov.scot
Helpful Links
The 16 Days of Learning event information and resources can be accessed via the padlet https://padlet.com/angelamcdonald4/mvp-16-days-of-learning-9zdcpwc690jhqh5l
16-Days-of-Action-Prevention-and-Speaking-Out.pdf (rapecrisisscotland.org.uk)
16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence | UN Women – Headquarters
Tackling Violence Against Women | Improvement Service
Violence Against Men – White Ribbon Scotland
Info about previous and planned campaigns/case studies:
16 Days of Action 2023 – Programme – Public Protection (dgppp.org.uk)
16 days 2022: what next? | 16 days of activism | East Lothian Council
https://twitter.com/BanffAcademyBXA/status/1596155095309336576
South Ayrshire Council Supports 16 Days of Action – South Ayrshire Council (south-ayrshire.gov.uk)
Recordings of several of the webinars are listed below. These are unlisted and we ask you not to share more widely.
Jackson Katz – https://youtu.be/8W9uJxkrAkQ
Emma Katz, the impact of coercive control on children and young people – https://youtu.be/vJpaaL5j1c0
Hannah Brown Improving Gender Balance & Equalities Team, Education Scotland. Recognising unconscious bias and
the links with gender-based violence https://youtu.be/eg_n42TqiSE
Linda Thompson, Impacts of pornography use among young people – https://youtu.be/shJ73f6bF5U
