For the past sixteen years the 16 Days of Activism has marked activities around the world to end gender-based violence. The 16 Days Campaign has been used to create a global movement to raise awareness, to address policy and legal issues, to campaign for the protection of survivors of violence and to call for the elimination of all forms of gender violence. The year 2006 marks the 16th Anniversary of the 16 days of Activism campaign.

The 25th of November, the day that marks the start of the Campaign, was declared International Day for No Violence Against Women at the first Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogot�, Colombia in 1981. This day was chosen to commemorate the death of the Mirabal sisters in 1960 by the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic. The day was officially recognised by the United Nations in 1999 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

In South Africa the campaign has brought together civil society organisations, government and business to raise awareness, by organising events and to raise funds to support victim support programmes. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence and Child Abuse Campaign is an annual, UN-endorsed, awareness-raising campaign that begins on the 25th of November each year and runs through till the 10th of December.

 The Campaign hopes to contribute to Government�s primary developmental objective of restoring to individuals their human dignity within the context of safer and more secure families and communities. The key commemorative dates during the Campaign serve as useful platforms for highlighting the plight of vulnerable groups (women, children, the aged and the disabled) that suffer from this scourge.

 Source: www.womensnet.org.za