16 Days of Activism Begins in Late November

Sixteen Days of Activism, an annual campaign to raise public awareness about women and gender-based violence, takes place later this month. It commences with a panel discussion on November twenty-sixth at the University of Belize and will feature several speakers, including Minister of Human Development Dolores Balderamos-Garcia. This morning, Special Envoy for Women and Children Rosanna Briceño was a guest on Open Your Eyes. The prime minister’s wife gave some background on why the month of November is important to highlight issues affecting women.

Rosanna Briceño

Rosanna Briceño, Special Envoy for Women & Children

“It’s an international campaign that began in 1991 and it started because it’s used to highlight the link between violence and against women and human rights, especially with the emphasis on women’s human rights and it officially began on November twenty-fifth.  Thereafter, for example today, 2021 commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of this global campaign, so it’s a worldwide thing that’s promoting awareness. And what I think hits me the most was the 365 added to the theme. Everyday we’re supposed to be working and promoting awareness and when reading the data, it says that the idea for 365 means that what we should be able to do as a country and as a whole to promote global awareness is that every month, every twenty-fifth of every month we should highlight it as an orange day. The color orange became synonymous with the whole women against violence and the Sixteen Days of Activism and really, orange is supposed to promote the idea that women should be free of gender-based violence, so that’s why the color orange.”