16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence: Day Ten

We spoke with Panha Sok, Executive Director of Cambodian organisation Banteay Srei, about their work and the 16 Days Campaign:

Can you tell us a little about your organsiation’s work?

Banteay Srei is a Cambodian women’s non-government organisation that empowers vulnerable women to improve their political, economic and psycho-social situation through implementation of community development projects, advocacy work and encouraging men’s participation in addressing issues affecting women.

How will your program impact on respect for women and women’s empowerment?

Banteay Srei works to raise the communities’ (especially women’s) knowledge and understanding of their rights.  The training and activities that Banteay Srei facilitate involve awareness of international and national law that related to human and women’s rights and how that law should be implemented in society. Understanding of rights is central to the empowerment and enables communities, especially women to participate and take more responsibility for the development process as they analyse their own situation and act to increase the way in which they and others fulfil their obligations to the community.

How is women’s status related to violence against women in your community?

Violence against women continues to be an endemic problem in the target communities. An awareness of and desire to use more peaceful problem solving methods is present, but the culture of violence is strongly rooted in communities. The problems are made worse by other issues of poverty, alcoholism and lack of education.  For women the patriarchal values, weak system of law and lack of safe places to flee can make them very vulnerable.

What is your organisation doing for the 16 days of Activism?

Banteay Srei will assist female commune council members and staff of district Office of Women’s Affairs to organise a public meeting in Kampong Tkov commune. It is expected that 250 villagers and local authorities will participate. The meeting will provide people [with] knowledge on the background of 16 Days of Activism, and real experiences of a man and a woman who got success in positive behaviour change toward domestic violence. The white ribbon will be pinned to the participants and people in the public march (rally). They will speak out for ending all forms of violence against women.

What do you think needs to be done to end Violence Against Women?

- Promotion of positive behaviour change among men and women, increased participation of women in social activities and increased shared household decision making

- Awareness-raising and education on women’s rights, to explore and discuss women’s rights and gender roles in the family and clarify the difference

- Village based models should be promoted to empower community men and women to support each other to combat VAW and to find their own solutions

- Improve law enforcement

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16 Days of Activism is a global campaign encouraging organisations and individuals across the world to take a stand against gender-based violence.

The campaign starts on 25th November: The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and ends on 10th December: World Human Rights Day.

16 Days of Activism was started by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership 18 years ago. The campaign’s beginning and end dates highlight that violence against women is a human rights violation.

Thousands of diverse groups and individuals now take part in 16 Days, together calling for an end to all types of violence against women. Each year people organise events in their communities, including meetings, conferences, demonstrations, exhibitions and performances.

This year at IWDA, we have decided to use the 16 Days to highlight the work our partners in Asia and the Pacific are doing to improve the situation for women and girls in their communities, as well as the work IWDA is undertaking in Australia. Each day between 25th November and 10th December, we will post a short article about 16 Days our website, Facebook page, and Twitter page.

Tags: 16 Days of Activism, Banteay Srei, Cambodia

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 under 16_Days.