By Gladys Kole
The national ministry of Gender, Child and Social welfare together with other humanitarian partners has launched the 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence in the country for this year 2022.
Government, UN agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSO) call for ending of all forms of violence against women and girls in the country.
This year campaign against GBV has been launched under the national theme “Take responsibility: protect women and girls from GBV”
People around the world every year unite on the 25th November to raise awareness about GBV nationwide on commemoration of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
The 16 days of activism shines a spotlight on the issue of violence against women. Violence against women is the most pervasive human rights violation around the world.
There are more proofs than ever that violence against women and girls is preventable and we must work towards preventing it.
The 16 days of activism against gender-based violence is an international campaign that originated from the first women’s global leadership institute sponsored by the center for women’s global leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University in 1991
Participants chose the date November 25, as the International Day for Commemoration of violence against women and December 10 as the international Human Rights Day, in order to symbolically link violence against women and human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a human rights violation.
South Sudan started commemorating the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence annually since 2007 and has continued up to date. The 16 days period offers an opportunity to raise awareness and scale up advocacy for effective initiatives to prevent and respond to GBV.
South Sudan being a member of the United Nations is mandated through several security resolutions and global commitments such as resolution 1325, CEDAW and Beijing platform for action to address the disproportionate and unique impact that armed conflict and gender-based violence women have.
These globe recognizes the particular vulnerability of women to sexual violence during conflict and post conflict situations where rule of law is fully established.
The two conflicts civil wars were characterized by the widespread forms of conflict-related sexual violence as weapon of war, forced abduction, forced sexual favors and of violence such as child compensation and widow inheritance against women and girls as they try to survive during these crisis period. All these have serious health and social consequences and some resulting g to death affecting the development of the country.
It has also been noticed that the majority of women and girls continue to suffer the brunt of the conflict in South Sudan, of which they continue to live in great fear because most of the gbv cases targeting young girls, some go unreported making perpetrators go free unpunished or some are released before they complete the prison terms.