Organisation to hold a series of workshops to mark the 16 Days of Activism

The Sexual Rights Centre will hold a series of workshops to mark the 2009 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign.

The organisation joins millions of people around the world pledging their support to end violence against women and upholding human rights.

The Director for the Sexual Rights Centre, Mrs Sian Maseko said that her organisation was building on last year’s campaign were they marked the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign using the theme: 16 Days -16 Rights.

“This year we are building momentum on our work. We will begin running workshop from 23 November till 10 December. We are targeting young women, women with mental health problems, teachers, HIV/AIDS service providers and medical practitioners,” said Mrs Maseko.

“Our work has shown that ignoring sexual and reproductive health rights results in violence against women, unequal power relations and harmful traditional practices which makes it hard for women to negotiate safe sex or to have control over their bodies. We also noted that peer pressure and negative stereotypes exerts pressure on men to adhere to a certain model of masculinity,” she explained.

This year’s theme for the campaign is Commit – Act – Demand: We CAN End Violence Against Women!
The theme encourages everyone in their various capacities to take action to end violence against women. It demands accountability for all of the promises made to eliminate violence against women.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence is an international campaign. The campaign runs from November 25, International Day Against Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation.