16 days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence Campaign in Tajikistan Dr. Pratibha Mehta, UNDP Resident Representative

December 2, 2020

26th November 2020

UNDP is very proud to unite with everyone to end violence against women and girls and to participate in the international 16 days activism against to prevent gender-based violence.

From on 25th November to 10 December. The campaign will start from the international Day of eliminating violence against women and would end on the International Human Rights Day.

During the 16 Days the focus will be to celebrate everyone who contributed in enhancing the status of women, creating opportunities and creating equality for women and men in the world, but it is also a day to remind us that the gender equality agenda is still unfinished. There are many women and many girls around the world who feel unsafe walking on the streets, working in offices, even at home, where they should be feeling the safest.

It is also a reminder that without creating opportunities, without empowering women, we cannot end violence against women and girls.

This year is particularly important in this campaign, because the pandemic has shown us that the inequalities between men and women, the unequal access to resources, unequal access to opportunities has disproportionately impacted women and it has also spiked up domestic violence.

This is particularly important as we also start working towards recovering from COVID 19 impact.

The activism campaign is also symbolized by color orange, which is symbol of hope, it is symbol of better future without violence, and that is why around the world iconic buildings are lit up in orange color and we are also lighting the UNDP building today as a symbol and as our commitment to  end violence against women and girls.

One of the most pervasive human rights violation is violence against women and girls, which cannot be eliminated by government alone, by civil society alone, or by international organizations. We all have to come together, we all have to unite together and speak with one voice against violence and to have zero tolerance for any form of violence, any form of abuse and any form of discrimination against women and girls.

So today UNDP with all the other partners will organize a series of activities to enhance the message, to create awareness, to create more sensitivity towards the violence against women agenda  we encourage everybody to join hands and to speak up and speak out from wherever they are because we need every voice and we need every action.