Victories over Violence: Ensuring Safety for Women and Girls - A Practitioner's Manual

Violence against women and girls is both a global and local societal ill-- global because its perpetrators and victims are in every corner of the world, and local because its forms differ from one place to the next depending on specific cultural, political, and socio-economic circumstances.

Authors: Mahnaz Afkhami, Haleh Vaziri

Whatever the form of abuse and the analysis of its causes, the defining feature of violence against women is the perpetrators’ goal of controlling women and girls. This control entails the imposition of certain gender roles on females, restrictions on women’s and girls’ physical movements and even efforts to own their bodies as property.

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Victories over Violence: Ensuring Safety for Women and Girls is a practitioners' manual, comprised of 16 sessions which unfold in a progression—moving from violence at home or in the private sphere, to the community or public space, to the transnational and international arenas. Case studies in each session are drawn from actual events and feature stories set in societies as diverse as Haiti, Malaysia, Nepal, and the United States. This enables the facilitator and participants to explore the linkages between violence in these three realms—the private, public and global—while underscoring the point that gender-based human rights violations are ubiquitous and defy cultural, economic, ethnic, political, religious and other divisions.

Within each session, the case study serves to spark conversation about the causes and consequences of violence against women and girls, the choices that victims make to survive and re-build their lives, as well as the measures practitioners take in addressing these human rights violations. Following the case studies are “questions for discussion,” and all but the last two sessions feature learning exercises.

The resulting dialogue allows the participants to identify and prioritize their concerns and to recognize obstacles as they strive to prevent violence and to vindicate the human rights of those victimized by it.

Alerts & Updates
March 15, 2013 | Arab Caucus, csw 57, Human Rights, Middle East, Stop Violence Against Women, violence against women, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine
**WLP joins partner organizations and others in the MENA region, and those from outside the region standing in solidarity for women’s full human rights, including the right to be free from violence, in the MENA region. The statement below was originally posted on here on the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies website.** 
January 15, 2013 | 2013 Events, Commission on the Status of Women, csw, Human Rights, Stop Violence Against Women
 Women’s Learning Partnership in partnership with the Center for Public Scholarship & the Gender Studies Program at The New School presentsHuman Security: The missing link between women’s rights, conflict, and peace 3:30 PM – 7:30 PM, March 6th, 2013
December 10, 2012 | 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violenc, Human Rights, Stop Violence Against Women, Political Participation, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria
 Each year activists, youth, local and international organizations, and governmental officials committed to eliminating violence against women participate in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. This annual campaign commences on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and lasts through December 10, International Human Rights Day.As part of WLP’s 2012 campaign activities, we held the online premieres of our Arabic, French, and Spanish subtitled-editions of the documentary, From Fear to Freedom: Ending Violence Against Women. In WLP’s film, released in 2012, leading experts and activists from across the globe discuss the root causes of gender-based violence (GBV), share strategies to combat it, and provide inspiring accounts of the important milestones already achieved through the international women’s movement.
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