Actions against Violence*

On the 25th, of November women around the globe will take the street or internet to manifest on the International Day for ​the Elimination of Violence against Women. This day was established in 1993 by the General Assembly of the United National. 

In it’s declaration article 1 states that violence against women “means any act of genderbased violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.

A lot of time went we talk about the term violence against women we only think of physical, psychological, and sexual violence,  however that is not the case since there are several types of violence. According to a Reporting on Violence against Women and Girls Handbook for journalist published  in 2019 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)  these are also actions of violence against women:

• Cyberbullying and online harassment to women includes several:

Trolling: post or comments to try to provoke controversy

• Doxxing: online researching and publishing of private information about a person

in order to cause them harm

• Obsessive online stalking (cyberstalking), intrusive and threatening harassment

of a person

• Cyber-control in relationships

• Revenge porn: non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, online public

sharing of sexually explicit content without the consent of the person concerned,

often for the purposes of revenge.

• Early marriages or child marriages
• Female genital mutilation/cutting
• Forced marriages
• Gender-specific foeticide and infanticide
• Sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape
• So-called ‘honour’ crimes
• Trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants women
• Violence by an intimate partner or ex-partner and murder (femicide).

Is important to remember that all these actions of violence are based on a patriarchal structure, which is defined by  the power between women and men globally. 

In Finland  +Collective which is a group of individuals of different backgrounds, networks, and organizations has a shared goal to support human rights and equality, promoting social change, and inclusion. Toward the 25h of November, it launched  the campaign ​“We Want We Do”.  The 6-week campaign program includes workshops, webinars, podcasts, and exhibitions; however, the main events will take place at Central​ ​Library Oodi and in Kansalaistori, Helsinki, from November 17 to 29, 2020. 

One the webinar that will be discussed is Online violence that was mentioned above. This way of violence is common today since the use of social media platforms are part of daily routine. You are welcome to join us on 20.11 at 16:30-18:00. For more information click here. 

In the campaign We Want We Do transgender women voice is hear about the violence they experience. In an interview to Susanna Viljanmaa from Transfeminiinit she manifested, “the violence that most transgender people experience is verbal. For example, the year I came out I got multiple harassment on the street everyday. Also, transgender immigrants face their own problems in Finland, sometimes their diagnoses from other countries aren’t respected or they might not need any diagnosis to get hormone replacement, thus their treatment ceases”. 

The artistic itinerant installation of Red Shoes created by the Mexican artist Elina Chauvet  which ​denounces the high percentage of violence against women and femicides during the 90s in ​Ciudad Juárez, Mexico  is one of the events that will take place on the November 25. Is the first time that this installation will be presented in Finland. During an interview for the campaign she said “the death of my sister by her husband  (femicide) was the cause of  my art. I was really excited when I got an email requesting that my art be presented in Helsinki, it will be at the very north of the planet”. 

Finland is not an exception for women violence. According to data from the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in 2019 there was an ​increase of 6% in relation to 2018 in people who sought help from shelters. 91% of people out of 5,354 who sought services were women. In addition, statistic from the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy (Krimo) states that in 2019, 15 women were murder in Finland. 

Women violence is a public issue, so please join us, act, and be part of this chain of change.  We Want and We Can Do it.

*This article was published in the We Encourage blog.