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Students from Strath Union and Glasgow Uni's SRC, holding banners with messages against gender-based violence.
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16 Days of Action

We’ll be hosting a series of events and campaigns throughout this year's 16 Days of Action against Gender-Based Violence campaign.

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This campaign page, and pages it links to, contains information about sexual assault and gender-based violence which may be triggering to survivors.

What is 16 Days?

It is an annual international campaign to end gender-based violence started by activists at the inauguration of the Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991.

Every year we take part in 16 Days campaign which starts on November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until December 10th, Human Rights Day.

What's on during 16 Days?

We're working on our 16 Days programme of events.

Fight for the Night

Every year as part of the 16 Days campaign Fight for the Night is held. This is an organised march through Glasgow's streets to demand action to make these safer and show solidarity with survivors of rape and sexual assault.  

Save the Date

This year's march is set for Thursday 27th November.

Chant sheet

Download

2025

This year, we adopted the Not in Our Name campaign and used this to spread awareness about how gender-based violence is weaponised to discriminate against minority groups. 

What is the Not in Our Name campaign?

  • ‘Not in Our Name’ is a statement that creates distance between groups and the government.
  • The campaign that originated in 2002 in the US and has since been adopted by various groups to fight against forms of oppression and violence.

Why is it important now? 

  • Over the last few months, there has been an increase in unfounded claims made by people in power regarding gender-based violence (GBV) that are based on racist and anti-migrant views.
  • This fuels the myth that the greatest risk of GBV comes from strangers and takes away from the key issues of gender-based violence.

GBV and Transphobia 

  • In April, it was ruled that, in the Equality Act (2010), ‘sex’ and ‘woman’ referred to biological sex only.
  • This decision was made by the Supreme Court after being brought to them by ‘For Women Scotland’ - an organisation which argue the term “woman” should not include trans women.
  • This has had a damaging impact on the trans community and is an example of how ‘women’s safety’ is used to justify transphobic views.

GBV and Racism/Anti-immigrant views 

  • Over the last few months, people in power have made a series of claims suggesting that migrants are the main perpetrators of GBV.
  • Politicians have based these inaccurate and unfounded claims on racist and anti-migrant views which has had a detrimental impact on the safety of immigrants in the UK.
  • By suggesting immigrants to be a danger to women’s safety, the facts and statistics on GBV are being ignored and the experiences of survivors are being overshadowed.

2024

Following the Fight for the Night march in 2024 a piece of art was created by attendees. The intention of the project was to create an outlet for the collective expression of all those post ‘Fight for the Night’ feelings. We offered a safe space for exploration of the energy collected on the march. Facilitation focused on the participant's processes using some therapeutic techniques when engaging with the difficult emotions.

One closeup area of artwork created at post-march eventAnother closeup area of the artwork created at post-march event

The group brought in feelings which for some participants were too hard to name, but were referred to as purple, pink and red. Participants were encouraged to work with those colours as expression of the feelings around GBV. This turned into a pluralistic space with many voices exploring their personal circumstances through the prism of socio-politics, gender, race, and the unconscious.

The whole piece was assembled by the participants there and then, and it resulted in creating a dynamic work, exploding with personal statements and emotions which from ‘I’ morphed into ‘Us’.

Thanks to the Glasgow School of Art who hosted the piece at their 16 Days Exhibition.

Exhibition details

How can I get involved?

If you are part of a charity, network or organisation and want to get involved with the campaign, march or host an event during 16 Days please get in touch with us.

If you're part of a Society or Sports Club you can get involved in a few different ways:

  • Make pledges on actions you will take as individuals or as a group to end GBV and/or highlight work you are already doing
  • Fundraise and promote the specialist services that help survivors like Rape Crisis Scotland’s National Helpline

Actions beyond 16 Days

  1. Trans Rights - A Call to Action statement

    Read the statement from some of our student reps on the EHRC ruling in April.

    Statement

  2. Not in Our Name campaign

    Read more about the Not in Our Name campaign.

    Not In My Name - JVP 

  3. End Violence Against Women article

    Read this article by ‘End Violence Against Women’ on the increase in racist views being used to justify Gender-Based Violence.

    Article

  4. UN Women

    Explore the content on the ‘UN Women’ website.

    UNITE to End Violence against Women Campaign

Sign letter

Sign this letter in support of the wider Not in Our Name Campaign.

Sign

Support services

Familiarise yourself with the support services on the webpages below.

Action wall displaying 2024 artwork and questions for students to answer

Action Wall

Add to our 16 Days of Action Wall on Level 1 of Strath Union. There is space to either answer the questions or leave a comment.