Orange Days: Say No — End Violence Against Women and Girls

August 25: Day of Action

On August 25—and the 25^th of each month—join peo­ple around the world in observ­ing an Orange Day to work for an end to vio­lence against women and girls.

As one of the most wide­spread vio­la­tions of human rights, vio­lence against women and girls includes phys­i­cal, sex­ual, psy­cho­log­i­cal, and eco­nomic abuse. It cuts across bound­aries of age, race, cul­ture, wealth, and geog­ra­phy. It takes place in the home, on the streets, in schools and work­places, in farm fields and refugee camps, and dur­ing con­flicts and crises.

Vio­lence against women and girls takes many forms—from domes­tic vio­lence to sex­ual vio­lence to harm­ful prac­tices to the sys­temic vio­lence of poverty and eco­nomic inequity to femi­cide to so-called “honor killings” to rape as a weapon of war and beyond. This vio­lence dev­as­tates lives, frac­tures com­mu­ni­ties, and stalls development.

Say NO—UNiTE to End Vio­lence against Women is a social mobi­liza­tion plat­form on end­ing vio­lence against women and girls, and is con­nected with UN Sec­re­tary Gen­eral Ban Ki-Moon’s cam­paign, UNiTE to End Vio­lence against Women.

Say NO—UniTE reports that:

• Based on coun­try data avail­able, up to 70 per­cent of women expe­ri­ence phys­i­cal or sex­ual vio­lence from men in their lifetime—the major­ity by hus­bands, inti­mate part­ners or some­one they know.

• In the United States, one-third of women mur­dered each year are killed by inti­mate partners.

• In India, 22 women were killed each day in dowry-related mur­ders in 2007.

• In Guatemala, two women are mur­dered, on aver­age, each day.

• Women and girls com­prise 80 per­cent of the esti­mated 800,000 peo­ple traf­ficked annu­ally with the major­ity (79 per­cent) traf­ficked for sex­ual exploitation.

• Approx­i­mately 100 to 140 mil­lion girls and women in the world have expe­ri­enced female gen­i­tal mutilation/cutting, with more than 3 mil­lion girls in Africa annu­ally at risk of the practice.

• Over 60 mil­lion girls world­wide are child brides, mar­ried before the age of 18.

• As many as 1 in 4 women expe­ri­ence phys­i­cal and/or sex­ual vio­lence dur­ing preg­nancy which increases the like­li­hood of hav­ing a mis­car­riage, still­birth or abortion.

• Approx­i­mately 250,000 to 500,000 women and girls were raped in the 1994 Rwan­dan genocide.

• In east­ern Demo­c­ra­tic Repub­lic of Congo, at least 200,000 cases of sex­ual vio­lence, mostly involv­ing women and girls, have been doc­u­mented since 1996, though the actual num­bers are con­sid­ered to be much higher.

• Between 40 and 50 per cent of women in Euro­pean Union coun­tries expe­ri­ence unwanted sex­ual advance­ments, phys­i­cal con­tact or other forms of sex­ual harass­ment at their workplace.

• In the United States, 83 per­cent of girls aged 12 to 16 expe­ri­enced some form of sex­ual harass­ment in pub­lic schools.

The National Coali­tion Against Domes­tic Vio­lence reports that, in the United States, one in every four women will expe­ri­ence domes­tic vio­lence in her lifetime.

Vio­lence runs con­trary to God’s inten­tions for the world and for our life together.  Vio­lence against women and girls denies the image of God in which each woman and each girl, as well as each man and each boy, is created.

Peo­ple, non­govern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, and gov­ern­ments have responded with efforts to address vio­lence against women and girls. Say NO—UNiTE to End Vio­lence against Women reports that some coun­tries have made some progress, cit­ing exam­ples from the UN Secretary-General’s 2006 In-Depth Study on All Forms of Vio­lence against Women:

• 89 coun­tries had some leg­is­la­tion on domes­tic vio­lence, and a grow­ing num­ber of coun­tries had insti­tuted national plans of action.

• Mar­i­tal rape is a pros­e­cutable offence in at least 104 countries.

• 90 coun­tries have laws on sex­ual harassment.

How­ever, there is still much to do.

Pres­by­te­ri­ans have joined peo­ple of faith and good­will in work­ing to end vio­lence against women and girls in a vari­ety of ways. We have cre­ated and imple­mented poli­cies, started and sup­ported domes­tic vio­lence cen­ters, advo­cated for pub­lic poli­cies, and pro­vided study resources. Pres­by­te­ri­ans Against Domes­tic Vio­lence has cre­ated resources for wor­ship and programming.

Par­tic­i­pa­tion in Orange Days on the 25^th of each month allows Pres­by­te­ri­ans and all Chris­tians, indi­vid­u­ally and cor­po­rately, to raise aware­ness of vio­lence against women and girls and to build on exist­ing efforts.

Orange Day at the Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations

How can we observe Orange Days?

• Wear orange. Tell those you meet why you are wear­ing orange. Take pic­tures and share them on social media with an expla­na­tion of why you are wear­ing orange.

• Sign the global call for action to tell gov­ern­ments around the world that you want them to make end­ing vio­lence against women and girls a top priority.

• Ask 3 peo­ple you know to sign the call to action.

• Join SayNO—UNiTE to End Vio­lence Against Women on Face­book and share why you think end­ing vio­lence against women and girls should be a pri­or­ity for deci­sion mak­ers around the world.

• Advo­cate for a Vio­lence Against Women Act that pro­tects all women.

• In August, respond to the ques­tion­naire that will help shape advo­cacy for Pres­by­te­ri­ans and our ecu­meni­cal part­ners at the UN Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women that will focus on the elim­i­na­tion on all forms of vio­lence against women and girls.

• Con­sider par­tic­i­pat­ing in the 2013 Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women. Learn more and find an appli­ca­tion.

• Teach­ing elders can preach on the issue of end­ing vio­lence against women and girls. Check out this ser­mon by the Rev. Jeff Geary of the White Plains Pres­by­ter­ian Church.

• Join Pres­by­te­ri­ans Against Domes­tic Vio­lence.

• Cre­ate a group in your wor­ship­ing com­mu­nity, mid-council, school or other loca­tion to work to end vio­lence against women and girls.

• Use your imag­i­na­tion. Share your ideas.

• Come back each month for more ideas.

Of course work­ing to end vio­lence against women and girls is not a task for one day a month. Orange Days pro­vide a reminder that, in Christ, we are called and freed to love one another and to pur­sue jus­tice for all—each day and every day.

The Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations rep­re­sents the Pres­by­ter­ian Church (U.S.A.) at the United Nations. Staff mem­bers help inspire, equip and con­nect Pres­by­te­ri­ans for min­istry as faith­ful dis­ci­ples of Jesus in the global com­mu­nity. The Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the United Nations helps Pres­by­te­ri­ans wit­ness to the nations of the world, in the name of Jesus Christ, based on the poli­cies of the Pres­by­ter­ian Church (U.S.A.) Gen­eral Assem­blies to the United Nations. Mark Koenig is the Direc­tor of the Pres­by­ter­ian Min­istry at the UN.