A SCOTTISH charity will be raising awareness of women killed by their partners or relatives over the next 16 days as part of a major campaign.
White Ribbon Scotland’s 16 Days of Activism runs alongside the UN’s campaign of the same name – an international initiative that’s been running since 1991 which raises awareness of gender-based violence.
The Scottish charity – which specifically focuses on men working to end violence against women – has been running its own campaign since 2021, when project officer Rebekah Cheung ran half-marathons for 16 straight days.
She dedicated each run to the memory of a woman killed by femicide since the murder of Sarah Everard in March of that year in Kent.
Femicide is the killing of a woman or girl because of her gender.
This year the charity will be using the 16 days to specifically highlight intimate partner violence and women killed either by their partners or someone related to them.
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On its social media channels, White Ribbon will dedicate each day to a specific woman murdered by their partner or relative.
Cheung told The National there is a widespread misconception that when women are killed it is usually by a stranger.
She said: “For more than 60% of women who are killed, it is because of intimate partner violence or they are related to the person that killed them.
“What we are seeing a big rise of is sons killing their mums as well.
“What we like to do within these 16 days is [raise awareness of the fact] there is still a huge misconception that when women are killed it’s by a stranger. It’s in the street, it’s in the dark, when actually the most unsafe place for a woman in the UK is in her own home and people don’t really understand that.”
A key message Cheung (above) said White Ribbon wants to continue to focus on is preventing gender-based violence through the involvement of men and boys.
She said she wants to encourage men to call out their peers if they use sexist language in the hope this can help put a stop to more serious forms of violence.
“Behind each of these femicide numbers there are countless women who are experiencing gender-based violence, they’re just not being counted because the number doesn’t [seem to] matter until it’s too late,” she said.
“What we want to teach people is that if we’re catching it earlier on and we’re raising awareness of our campaign, we’re nipping it in the bud now and we won’t see those same numbers. Prevention should be our priority.
“We look to prevent gender-based violence through the inclusion of men and boys. If women could’ve solved this, they would have done so by now.
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“We want men to hold their peers accountable for what they say, whether it’s a rape joke or a sexist remark, because these enable those higher levels and more serious forms of gender -based violence.
“We’re not asking for huge symbolic gestures from men, we’re just asking them to call out their mates before it’s too late.”
The charity is also looking to push for femicide to be to be given a specific definition in UK criminal law.
Currently this offence falls under other provisions of the law such as murder or manslaughter, but Cheung said it would help to have a distinction.
“It then shows there is a specific motivation for why these women are being killed,” she added.
“It would address the systemic issue of violence against women instead of it just being ‘another woman has died, we don’t know why’ and not address any of the root problems.
“So many killings of women are going unnoticed because they’re not naming a specific reason why.”
The 16 Days of Activism runs from Monday until Tuesday, December 10.
White Ribbon Scotland will be campaigning at Kilmarnock station on Monday and at the other stations on Tuesday.
To find out more about White Ribbon Scotland, click here.
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