Ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) in our lifetimes will require dismantling the ingrained and intersecting systems, laws, norms, and practices that oppress women, girls, and gender-diverse people. Women’s and feminist gender justice organizations and movements have always been at the forefront of this work, acting in solidarity across local, national, regional, and international contexts.
In 2024, the City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) began hosting the Global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign that had been hosted by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership. For over thirty years, this civil society-led campaign has brought together local and global feminist activists and movements to raise awareness of the many forms of gender-based violence, its root causes and impact, and pathways to prevention and accountability. Historically the campaign has run for 16 days, from International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (November 25) to Human Rights Day (December 10).
The campaign is housed at the Sexual & Reproductive Justice Hub (SRJ Hub) at CUNY SPH, which coordinates solutions-oriented scholarship, training, and advocacy, centering the lived experiences of women of color and funding their and other marginalized people’s work. We draw on our experience as part of the United States’ largest, oldest, and most diverse urban public university system, with faculty, staff, and students connected to communities and populations around the world.