Initiated in 1991, 25th November marked the annual 16 days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV). As we reflect on these 16 days including impassioned moments of awareness, mobilisation, and activism, we must continue to confront the truth. The progress made is being peeled back demonstrating that the battle against gender-based violence is far from over. As such, the fight demands more than just our voices for a brief moment each year and we call for unwavering commitment and collective action, to bring about real, structural lasting change.

Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration, the Platform for Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Regarded as a watershed moment in the global agenda on gender equality, the Declaration established a framework for defining women's rights as human rights. It sets out 12 key areas that require action including women and health, women and poverty, education and training on violence against women.

And yet we find ourselves thirty years later, the reality remains bleak at this juncture. Despite the milestones achieved, the scale of violence against women is staggering and unacceptable. Globally, 1 in 3 women experience gender-based violence during their lifetime. This is not an abstract statistic and you or someone close to you has likely experienced this violence. The horror continues. Femicide, the killing of women and girls is on the rise with more than 5 women or girls killed every hour by someone in their own family.

By the time they turn 19, nearly one in four adolescent girls (24%) who have been in a relationship will have experienced physical, sexual or psychological abuse by a partner. Sadly, due to shame and silencing, the cases are often underreported. Less than 40 per cent of women who experience violence seek help of any sort demonstrating that these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg.

Moving Beyond the 16 days

As we close the chapter on the 16 Days of Activism, let us be crystal clear: this fight is not confined to 384 hours in a single year. As with many civil society organisations, the fight is 365 days a year, every year. We must remember that not all women and girls face violence in the same way. Women and girls from marginalised communities, whether they are from different racial or ethnic backgrounds, live with disabilities, belong to gender minorities or face economic hardship experience violence in ways that are unique to their intersecting identities. These multiple layers of vulnerability make them disproportionately exposed to violence. If we are to create a world where all women and girls are safe, we must address how their experiences of violence are shaped by factors beyond just their gender. For example, women and girls with disabilities are 2 to 4 times more likely to experience domestic violence than women without disabilities. Similarly, older women, very often invisibilised in discussions about GBV are victimised by their intimate partners and their own families. Violence against older women includes emotional, physical, and financial abuse at the hands of partners and even children.

This year, the story of Gisèle Pelicot shook the world. The 71-year-old French woman stood before a court and spoke with courage about the horrific violence she endured at the hands of her former husband who drugged, raped and invited dozens of other men to assault her, all the while he recorded the decades-long abuse. Gisèle’s testimony accurately and boldly declared that “This violence was not my fault” adding that she wants women who have been raped to know that “it’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them.”

Her voice, strength, and call for an open trial is a courageous call to arms for every woman who has ever felt silenced, shamed and forgotten. Her testimony reminds us of the importance that survivors’ voices must be at the centre of the fight to end violence.

As the 16 Days of Activism come to an end, let us commit to a truth that cannot be ignored. The statistics are horrifying, the stories distressing but we must act with haste. All hope is not lost, we have the power to change this. Every act of courage, every utterance of a survivor’s declaration and all moments and movements toward justice are what will bring about what all those in the world deserve.