Thursday 30 April 2009

"We Can" launched in the Netherlands


It's "We Can", tout court, not "yes we can": The We Can End All Violence against Women campaign has been launched in the Netherlands. Reaching beyond feminist circles, "We Can" attempts to make large numbers of women and men realise that the personal is political, and encourage them to undertake practical steps in their daily lives to end inequalities between the sexes and violence against women. People can take a pledge to become change makers on the campaign website (in Dutch), and download materials including the signature reproduced here. Don't speak Dutch? There is another informative site on "We Can" in the Northern hemisphere: wecanbc.ca, filled with material on the campaign in British Columbia, Canada. The campaign originated in South Asia: wecanendvaw.org

Sunday 19 April 2009

Communication on Gender-Based Violence

Better late than never - just discovered a 2003 resource by UNIFEM: Making a Difference - Strategic Communications to End Violence against Women, available from the UNIFEM site. Apart from lots of practical advice, it includes this amazing story from Eastern Europe:

A billboard campaign in the Czech Republic for Nokia ‘hands free’ telephone accessories showed a man molesting a woman now that his hands were ‘free’ from holding the phone receiver. To protest the ad, the Prague Centre for Gender Studies collected electronic signatures via their website and presented them to the Czech Advertising Standards
Council, the Czech State Administration Office and the Finnish headquarters of Nokia. The letter to Finland stated that this kind of sexist advertising contradicts Nokia’s brand identity. Within 14 days of receiving the letter, the Finns withdrew the billboard.
Adapted from a story told by Lenka Simerska, Bratislava Strategic Communications Workshop, October 2001.

Sunday 12 April 2009

Literature on Gender-Based Violence

These days I have been
--> going through heaps of publications on violence against women (VAW), many of which you'll find via the Siyanda portal. A few highlights: