Zonta says NO to violence against women

Zonta International is an active part of the worldwide annual 16-day campaign that the United Nations calls UNiTE To End Violence Against Women. In Sweden, many local clubs take the opportunity to spread knowledge and take a stand against violence against women.

November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which kicks off the 16-day campaign, which ends on December 10, International Human Rights Day.

The global initiative 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence was already initiated in 1991. The UN campaign started in 2008 and now it is governments, companies, organizations, media, civil society and private individuals all over the world who pay attention and takes a stand against violence against women.

This year's theme from the UN is Orange the world: End violence against women now! Orange has become the symbolic color to stop violence against women. The Orange Day was originally on the 25th of November and is now the 25th of every month and the entire 16-day period.

Engaged clubs

Many Zonta clubs contact municipalities and property owners to have buildings, bridges and other things illuminated in orange. Lectures, exhibitions, light demonstrations, torchlight processions, tip walks, information in connection with sporting events - the list of activities around the country is long.

The clubs inform in different ways about violence against women. The horrific figures in the statistics become even clearer when, for example, the number of reported violent crimes is illustrated with orange-colored shoes or ribbons.

Submitter in local daily press

Several local newspapers have recently published submissions from one or more Zonta clubs. This is a way for Zonta to make visible statistics on violent crimes against women at the municipal level during the campaign.

Submitter - Now the violence against women and girls must end! (pdf, 0.2 MB)

Find a campaign activity near you

Some examples of interesting lectures where the public is invited to participate:

Falun–Borlänge Zonta club arranges A blow does nothing at Kulturhuset tio14 in Falun on November 25 at 17:00-20:00. With light manifestation and a series of interesting lectures.
Örebro Zonta Club is co-organizer of the lecture "Void of violence - there is a way out" with Susanne Strand, docent in criminology, at Örebro University on November 25 at 18:00–19:30.
Lund's Zonta Club arranges a conversation between the Crisis Centre, Zonta and the Police in Lund about the consequences of violence in close relationships and what we can do for children and adults who are affected, on November 30 at 12:00–13:00 at the City Library.
The Zonta clubs in and around Gothenburg are co-organizers of two webinars. The first takes place on November 24 at 18:00 and then Lisa Rudolfsson lectures on her article "At least I tried", focusing on the police's treatment of women who have been victims of rape. The second webinar starts on December 1 at 11:45 and is about children's vulnerability online and lecturer is Caroline Engvall.

You can find more information about what is happening during the campaign on our Facebook page.