Civil society organizations commit to take actions against gender-based violence

To prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV), civil society organizations and multi-sectoral departments have committed to take coordinated and collective actions.

To accelerate concrete policy response and promote zero tolerance to gender-based violence across all spheres of society, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and its partners have observed a 16 days of activism against GBV campaign by organizing an online live event, titled “Preventing and Responding to Gender-Based Violence: Everyone has a Role to Play,” on Saturday. 

The partners of UNFPA are Department of Women Affairs, ActionAid Bangladesh, Ain o Salish Kendra, and CARE Bangladesh with support from the Canadian Embassy and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The live event has created an opportunity to exchange dialogue between more than 300 activists and policymakers, civil society organizations, service providers, media representatives, and the public that helped to increase awareness and galvanize advocacy efforts to end violence against women and girls. 

The event was viewed live by more than thousands of mass people through various social media platforms. 

Multi-sectoral services for GBV survivors

In the event, the speakers have emphasized ensuring multi-sectoral public services for gender-based violence survivors in a coordinated and non-discriminative means, so that it encourages the survivors to report violence and get justice hence reducing the violence.

A policy note on the “Access to GBV services: Reality, challenges, and recommendations” was presented by Ainoon Naher, professor, Department of Anthropology, Jahangirnagar University where different services gaps and recommendation towards a more effective system of multi-sectoral services for GBV survivors were discussed.

In the panel discussion “Leave no-one behind” the honorable panelists raised the concern on the discriminative attitude towards the intersectional community that isolates and makes them an “invisible” population in the society. 

They urge to ensure multi-sectoral public services and equal opportunities for all the survivors irrespective of any dimensions’ identities, e.g. class, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexuality, gender, age, marital status, language and location. 

The session was moderated by Faustina Pereira, executive committee member, Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), concluded by emphasizing on ensuring equity before equality and being more sensitive towards treating people differently depending on their needs.

The guest of honor of the event HE Benoit Prefontaine, Ambassador, Canadian Embassy said: “The solution of preventing gender-based violence is respecting other human beings. The current increased statistic of violence should not be viewed as just background data, but as an urgent call to enhance the action against sexual violence.” 

Dr Asa Torkelsson, representative, UNFPA said: “We say ‘Enough!’ to domestic violence; ‘Enough!’ to rape; ‘Enough!’ to harmful practices such as child marriage; and ‘Enough!’ to sexual violence. Everyone has a role to play in making sure we end all forms of gender-based violence, and today’s event is a testament to how each of us can play our part, collectively, and individually.” 

The event was also insightful with the speeches of honorable guests. Farah Kabir, country director, ActionAid Bangladesh has expressed her strong position on zero tolerance to child marriage and emphasized educating girls and engaging men and boys to sensitize on the harmful effects of power over to reduce all sorts of violence. 

Golam Monowar Kamal, executive director, Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) has shared some recommendations to prevent violence that includes taking actions to implement the existing laws and directives of the high court to prevent sexual harassment and all forms of violence against women and girls.

Ram Das, deputy country director (humanitarian), CARE Bangladesh has urged to take the pledge to prevent all forms of violence at home, workplace and in the society at large and to concentrate on removing the existing disparity across the gender.

During the panel discussion with the multi-sectoral departments on the way forward to increase the access to GBV related services, the honorable panelists from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Department of Women Affairs; Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs; Department of Social Service; and Bangladesh Police, Police Headquarters have shared about the efforts of the government to tackle the increasing violence and committed to ensuring a coordinated, non-discriminative and unified actions to prevent gender-based violence.

The two-hour-long events ended with the commitment to take prompt, supportive, and empathic collaboration between all the sectors to find innovative solutions to end gender-based violence.