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The Stop Violence Against Women Campaign

The Power of Change Is in Our Hands

It is time to break the silence about the crisis of violence against women, and the silence that confronts so many women and girls when they seek safety, justice and rehabilitation. As a global human rights campaigning organization, there is much we can do to help end the silence and stop violence against women, and to create a world where women and girls are afforded their basic human rights. Across the world, Amnesty International members will unite to work towards making women’s human rights a reality.

How Our Campaign Will Contribute to Stopping Violence Against Women

Using a human rights framework to oppose violence against women changes the perception of it from a private matter to a public concern that requires action from recognized authorities. It also enables Amnesty International to use international human rights standards and laws to cut across national boundaries, cultures and religions to protest violence against women in all its forms. And perhaps most importantly, it makes it possible to use international remedies to hold governments accountable if they fail to meet their obligations to protect women from violence, regardless of who commits it or where it’s committed. By providing a global, human rights framework for the struggle to end violence against women, we will make clear once and for all that women and girls have the rights to be protected from violence for the simple fact that they are human.

Throughout the campaign:

* - We will call on governments and armed groups to end impunity for violence against women during times of conflict and post-conflict.
* - For some countries, we will demand that governments abolish discriminatory laws and practices that perpetrate violence against women.
* - In others, we will call for the adoption of new laws and policies to provide women protection from violence.
* - We will support women’s human rights defenders, and urge governments to ratify the Treaty for the Rights of Women (CEDAW) and its protocol without reservations.
* - In the US, we will work in support of anti-violence legislation and other national and local initiatives to stop VAW.
* - We will help increase public awareness of violence against women as a global human rights issue, and contribute to efforts to challenge attitudes and behaviors that perpetuate violence against women.

We are hoping for the broadest possible participation in the campaign from both men and women activists of Amnesty International USA. Men also suffer when the women they care about are targets of violence, and many male Amnesty members are already active in condemning and stopping violence against women. A key strength that Amnesty brings to any campaign is membership activism domestically and internationally, and the SVAW campaign is going to require time, energy, resources, and effort from all our members. If women are ever to see the day when the societies in which they live respect, protect and fulfill their rights, it’s going to take the kind of massive international push for equality and justice that only an organization with Amnesty’s global reach is capable of.

Amnesty International USA: Stop Violence Against Women Campaign (SVAW)

posted by Annamarie at 8:21 PM