A Call for 365 Days of Action Against Gender-Based Violence
By Beverley Essue and Sarah Kaplan
Every year, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) campaign runs from Nov. 25 to Dec. 10, aiming to mobilize people worldwide to eliminate all forms of GBV. But GBV isn’t just a problem 16 days of the year.
GBV inflicts our society all year round. It results in immense personal and economic costs that can span an individual’s lifetime and are passed along to children and other family members exposed to violence. It ripples across health, education, employment, justice and social systems and, accordingly, stunts growth and prosperity within economies.
While the social, moral, human rights and economic arguments for eliminating GBV are unequivocally clear, actions to repair the tears in the societal fabric that enable GBV have been fraught with inadequate and piecemeal investments. This has resulted in uncoordinated and sub-optimal approaches to preventing and addressing the scourge of gendered violence.
GBV is an everyday reality or risk for all women, transgender and nonbinary people, as well as many men. In Canada, four in 10 women will have experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime; if we also consider all forms of GBV, this rate spikes to one in every two women. Importantly, the risks and consequences are amplified for those who are the most marginalized – immigrant women, trans women, racialized women, Indigenous women, disabled women and others.
While a focus on the prevention of GBV must remain a top priority, ensuring an integrated and sustainable framework of support is essential for surviving and thriving. In our new report on improving access to services, we found that survivors – especially racialized and Indigenous survivors – face three persistent barriers to getting the support they need.
First, seeking support may not be seen as acceptable behaviour because of cultural acceptance of violence and internalized stigma and shame that can delay help-seeking. Further, a lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services keep necessary help out of reach. Second, health, psycho-social and legal services may not be affordable due to the cost of travel and childcare, lack of health insurance, or lack of financial autonomy. Third, many services are not designed to meet the diverse needs of survivors who may be unaware of what is available or are too far away to gain assistance.
Thus, a one-size-fits-all model of support risks making racially and ethnically diverse survivors “invisible” at a time of their greatest need.
Yet, with the right support, survivors can experience improved health and well-being, improved self-confidence, reduced psychological distress, increased social connectedness, increased motivation to help others facing violence, and be empowered to regain control and autonomy in their lives.
So, how should these barriers be addressed?