More about 16 Days of Activism

* Attract all South Africans to be active participants in the fight to eradicate Violence Against Women & Children; hence the theme. * Expand accountability beyond the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster to include all government clusters and provinces. * Combine technology, social media, the arts, journalism, religion, culture and customs, business and activism to draw attention to the many ways Violence Against Women & Children affects the lives of all people in all communities around the world. * Ensure mass mobilisation of all communities to promote collective responsibility in the fight to eradicate violence against women and children. * Encourage society to acknowledge that violence against women and children is NOT a government or criminal justice system problem, but a societal problem, and that failure to view it as such results in all efforts failing to eradicate this scourge in our communities. * Emphasise the fact that the solution lies with all of us. What is violence against women and children? Violence takes many forms, for example: * Physical violence in the form of domestic violence, terrible violent crime such as murder, robbery, rape and assault. * Emotional violence and trauma at many levels caused by many factors. Women and children in their homes, at work, at schools, on our streets, in our communities suffer this form of violence for various reasons. * Another terrible blight of our democracy is the violence of poverty, starvation, humiliation and degradation, especially against women and children. Poverty, inequality and unemployment are conditions under which violence thrives.