16 Days of Activism 2010: The Violence is Not our Culture campaign marks its third year with a series of global actions

 On the eve of this year’s commemoration of the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence, the Global Campaign to Stop Killing and Stoning Women launched its new name:

Violence is not our Culture: A Global Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women in the name of ‘Culture”
(VNC Campaign)

The change is in response feedback from its activists and allies to broaden the scope of the Campaign beyond specific manifestations of culturally-justified VAW such as ‘killing’ and ‘stoning’.  The change of name is also timely as we launch our engagement in the debate at the UN on universality versus cultural relativism in human rights.      

The 16 Days of Activism also offered the Campaign key opportunities by which it could raise the profile of its concerns on ‘culture’ and gender–based discrimination and violence against women (CVAW) and be in solidarity with social movements, NGOs, individuals, friendly-States and the UN system engaged in common efforts to end violence against women.