Campaign "Stand up and Fight"
The campaign
On the occasion of the Human Rights International Day that marks the last day of the United Nations 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe reaffirms its commitment to end violence against women by drawing the attention on the victim-blaming attitudes that marginalise and stigmatise the survivor and make it harder to come forward and report the abuse. There is currently a massive underreporting of all forms of violence against women that is not disputed in both developed and developing countries.
To this commitment, the North-South Centre is raising awareness on the obstacles and barriers that stand against women survivors of sexual violence by
Recent reports show that women are reluctant to report violence for several reasons such as the perception of violence as a private, family affair and the lack of support and protection of governmental bodies, police, and justice. The fears of complicating the situation and other people’s reactions, especially male family members, are also among reasons of the underreporting. Latest data on the reporting of all forms of violence also shows that reporting of sexual violence is the lowest. The fear of being
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Video
The video is a creation of collaboration between the North-South Centre and youth artists from Algeria and Jordan. Houss Ine, member of the project SKIMI Radio in Algeria created the soundtrack and the filmmaker Maysoon, creator of the Falak project in Jordan were responsible to illustrate a testimony inspired by real stories, thoughts, and declarations of survivors of sexual violence.
The video is addressing issues such as the blaming of victims illustrating also that women can be blamed not only by their oppressors, but also by their families, close circle, society, as well as by their peers. The impact of the group condemnation is a major issue, as well as the self-condemnation. The message of the video aims to tackle all these issues, calling the survivors to report on this form of violence and calling to the survivors’ entourage and society to support them in this exercise instead of putting barriers upon them. Blaming victims reinforce what the abuser has been saying all along; that it is the victim’s fault this is happening in order to avoid accountability for his actions.
Click on the image to view the video