Sessions Report from webinar on Gender Based Violence. Commemorating 16 days Activism, 2020

Gender-Based Violence pervades our daily lives in more ways than we can count. As an issue driven by various motives, sometimes cultural and structural norms besides often a blatant disregard for women’s equal rights in terms of practised discrimination, Gender Based Violence has been as old and familiar to the world as patriarchy happens to be. This is not to say that Gender-Based Violence is only suffered by women. Men also experience Gender-Based Violence as well as members of the LGBTQ community. For the purpose of this webinar, our panellists chose to focus on the status of women in terms of understanding and combating Gender-Based Violence in support of the 16 Days of Activism Campaign that runs from 25th November till 10th December every year since the initial campaign of 1991. This effort is to commemorate the steps taken and to map the progress of advocacy for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women with the aim to stand for women’s rights as human rights that accord to women the right to live a safe and dignified life. The webinar was an attempt to bring multiple stakeholders and young women to deliberate at a youth forum on the topic of Gender-Based Violence while also exploring the shifting dynamics of how Gender-Based Violence features in today’s fast-changing world, especially in the middle of the global COVID crisis.