16 Actions for the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence 2023

Below are 16 Actions you can take during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign:

1) Take action and start a discussion! Gather state officials, women leaders, youth and all members of your community together to unite against gender-based gun violence. Raising awareness, education and sharing solutions are effective ways to campaign for positive change to prevent the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons (SALW).

2) Devise an advocacy strategy. IANSA has created a toolkit on advocacy to provide its members with ideas and techniques they might need to raise their voices effectively and make strategic choices on targets, tactics and messages. Access the toolkit here. Learn about other organisations’ ideas by reading IANSA’s report on our project for “Building civil society dialogues with governments to promote national PoA priorities,” available here.

3) Promote #YouthMainstreaming! By ensuring that youth are actively involved in decision-making, awareness campaigns, and disarmament initiatives, the #YouthMainstreaming approach recognises the significant role youth can play in fostering peace and security. Read and share IANSA’s fact sheet, which offers some examples from different countries, of youth involvement, UN commitments, and actionable steps by States, available here.

4) Share the UN Secretary General’s “New Agenda for Peace” with your state officials. In July 2023, the UN Secretary-General released “A New Agenda for Peace” with action-oriented recommendations, building on the proposals from the report “Our Common Agenda.” Visit pages 22 and 23 for recommendations on SALW; The full brief is available here. We also must continue to promote a Culture of Peace and respect for human rights!

5) Advocate for gender mainstreaming small arms control. It is important to ensure that women’s perspectives and experiences are taken fully into account in policies and measures to control SALW and to develop programmes to reduce and eradicate gun violence. Read about IANSA’s experience in promoting “Effective civil society engagement to inform and influence gender mainstreaming in small arms trafficking and misuse,” available here.

6) Help your state officials prepare for RevCon4. RevCon4 will take place from 17-28 June 2024. We must ensure that gender mainstreaming continues to be a topic of discussion and action in the leadup to and during RevCon4. Urge your state to have a gender-diverse delegation and prioritise gender mainstreaming as an important strategy and policy area to prevent gun violence.

7) Advocate for better firearm laws and gender considerations. Hold a meeting (in person or virtually) with a government official of your country (parliamentarian, mayor, assembly person, police chief, professional association etc.) to advocate for laws, policies, and programs that are gender responsive and effective at addressing GBV. Read IANSA’s paper that examines five countries’ current strengths and gaps in legislation to assist your campaign for more wide-reaching laws and stronger policy implementation in gun-control, available here.

8) Urge your state to develop and set national and regional targets in relation to gender-responsive arms control. Setting targets can help your state effectively implement the UN Programme of Action on SALW. Learn more about target setting and national action plans with IANSA’s new publication here.

9) Share experiences and solutions with your community.Organize a webinar, seminar or workshop and invite panelists to discuss challenges and solutions to GBV and the ways that the proliferation and misuse of SALW can be prevented in your country or community. Invite people who have been affected by gender-based violence and gun violence to share their testimonies and provide a platform for their voices to be shared more widely. IANSA has interviewed five women campaigners about their various experiences from around the world. The resulting publication offers a range of opinions and advocacy approaches, and is available here.

10) Be an ally and engage online! Support the overall 16 Days campaign online and follow IANSA’s campaign on social media and engage with our content – on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook! Also, follow the United Nations Office for Disarmament’s social media campaign for more resources and information on the 16 Days campaign – Twitter and Instagram.

11) Support survivors of gender-based violence. Provide a safe space in your community for survivors to share their stories and be heard. Urge your governments to provide proper health care and to offer legal assistance to those who suffer injuries, trauma, and disabilities from gun violence in all its forms; adequately fund gun violence reduction programs; and develop and/or strengthen gun violence survivors’ support networks that include social support systems, education systems, and civil society organisations.

12) Write to your government and promote gender-responsive small arms controls and strict controls on civilian-held guns. Write or email governmental officials in your area and country. Urge them to require comprehensive background checks before issuing a gun license or recruiting them into the law enforcement agencies and armed forces; prohibit domestic violence and organized crime offenders from owning a gun; and treat intimate partner and family violence as a serious crime. Read and share IANSA’s publication on strengthening controls on civilian-held small arms, available here.

13) Advocate to disarm domestic violence and remove guns from homes. Intimate partner violence is a major form of violence in women’s lives worldwide and the presence of a gun greatly increases the risk of death and serious injury. At least one in every three women will be physically abused at least once in their lifetime. Outside armed conflict situations, women are more likely to be abused in their own homes than anywhere else, and their abuser is most likely to be a husband, boyfriend or other male relative. Read and distribute IANSA’s Disarm Domestic Violence campaign.

14) Promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 5 is focused on achieving gender equality. SDG 5.2 sets the goal of ending all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030. Report and call for your government to enact or implement legislation on GBV. Visit the UN SDG website for more info and facts on SDG 5 here.

15) Promote the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda with your government. There is a growing awareness that SALW-related violence is highly gendered and that a gender perspective is needed for effective SALW control. Read and distribute IANSA’s publication: “Strengthening the Connection Between Small Arms and Light Weapons Controls and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.”

16) Encourage your government to complete its PoA National Report, specifically the section on gender considerations and the collection of disaggregated data. Under the PoA, states agree to submit a national report on their implementation of the PoA and International Tracing Instrument (ITI) every two yea National reports also support data collection for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Check whether your country has submitted its 2020 PoA report and whether it has completed the gender consideration section here.

For additional ideas, check out IANSA’s report highlighting members’ activities from the 2023 Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence, and the 2022 Global Week of Action Against Gun Violence. All IANSA publications are available on our webpage here.