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The World Rises for Justice: One Billion Rising for Justice Campaign Launches New Activist Tools & Resources

10/07/2013

The World Rises for Justice

One Billion Rising for Justice Campaign Launches New Activist Tools & Resources

Over 100 Countries Already Signed on to Rise on 14 February 2014

“This is What Justice Looks Like” Project Features Videos from Haiti, the Philippines, South Africa and Syria

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Susan Celia Swan/Kate Fisher: media(at)vday.org
+1 917 865 6603

(7 October 2013) -- Today, V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, and the One Billion Rising campaign announced the expansion of the One Billion Rising for Justice campaign with the launch of the "This is What Justice Looks Like” project, an activist toolkit, Events Map, and more.

The One Billion Rising for Justice campaign is rapidly building upon the energy and momentum that was created in early 2013 when one billion activists in 207 countries came together to strike, dance, and rise to end violence against women and girls. This year’s campaign is a call to women, men, and youth around the world to gather on 14 February 2014 outside places where they are entitled to justice. More than 100 countries are already signed on to Rise outside court houses, police stations, government offices, school administration buildings, work places, sites of environmental injustice, military courts, embassies, places of worship, or other public spaces for justice, marking the call to end the rampant impunity that prevails globally.

“In 2013, one billion rose around the world to end violence against women and girls in the biggest mass action in the history of the world. This year we are escalating and connecting the dots. We are rising for gender, economic, racial, environmental Justice. We are rising and dancing with our bodies, to end the violations towards our bodies and the body of the earth,” said V-Day Founder and award winning playwright Eve Ensler.

The expanded One Billion Rising website will feature activist videos, daily news updates and photos, information on joining the campaign and much more. Individuals and organizations can get involved with One Billion Rising online by adding to the thousands already signed up. The "This is What Justice Looks Like” project launches today as a forum in which activists can share their definitions of justice in the form of text, image, and video in an online collage on the campaign website. The series debuts with videos from activists in Syria, Haiti, the Philippines, South Africa and a new monologue by Eve Ensler. Contributors are encouraged to visualize what justice looks like, harnessing their power and imagination.

“Imagine, one billion women releasing their stories, dancing and speaking out at the places where they need justice, where they need an end to violence against women and girls. Join us – Rise, Release, Dance!” said One Billion Rising Director Monique Wilson.

The One Billion Rising for Justice Events Map will illustrate the worldwide scope of the movement through a searchable map that includes events planned for the 2014 Rising. Organizers are encouraged to add their events to the map to spread the word about their events and be counted among the Rising. This year, they will have the additional ability to add photos, video links, and more information than last year, utilizing the map for maximum public awareness and reach.

As the campaign enters its next phase with planning and discussions beginning in communities worldwide, the One Billion Rising For Justice article series begins with an original post from feminist theorist Zillah Eisenstein. Published today on the Huffington Post, Eisenstein’s piece is entitled “A girl/festo for ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE.”  In it, she writes:

“Violence towards girls and women across this globe, both today and yesterday, is the non-exclusive unique mobilizing force that puts ONE BILLION RISING at a singular moment in history—singular in the physicist’s sense of a revolutionary moment—when the change that comes after the event totally alters what came before. Violence against women may sound like a singular focus but it is no longer such, if it ever was, given the growing complexity of global capitalism, and patriarchy and racism, and misogyny, and heterosexism. As women speak their violation; as we make the personal political; as we publicize the silences of this bravery, a new transparency, seeps elsewhere. We move from the body to the globe; from the personal to the structural, from the individual to the collective, and back again. Saying no to sexual violence harkens forth also saying no to the contamination of our streams, and water and air by greedy corporate interests and their raping of the earth through endless war.”

One Billion Rising for Justice is growing in size and scope everyday as activists around the world in over 100 countries gather to plan their risings. Some exciting examples include:

  • Peru is Rising against sexual harassment, inviting the Construction Workers Union to head the campaign
  • Nigeria is Rising to continue their fight to end child marriages and holding media campaigns to highlight the legalization of violence in communities
  • Guatemala is Rising in support of laws to protect women and to highlight indigenous women and their vision of justice
  • Bangladesh is Rising to lobby political parties to bring legislation to protect women
  • Los Angeles is Rising to promote rape awareness and sexual assault in the military, engaging courts, local police and sheriff departments
  • Haiti is Rising to highlight the impact of the earthquake on women and girls
  • Groups across the United Kingdom are planning diverse Risings, with workshops on what justice is in the UK context, planned across the country starting this month
  • The Philippines is Rising against militarization, corporate greed, mining, economic injustice and labor exploitation, and the plundering done by a corrupt government that severely impacts women and girls
  • India is Rising with a focus on environmental and economic injustice, and will hold women’s tribunals leading up to 14 February
  • Migrant groups around the world – led by Justice for Domestic Workers in the UK, and the Migrant Filipino workers network in 22 countries – are Rising to uphold better rights for domestic and migrant workers everywhere, and to end modern day slavery
  • Mongolia is Rising with the Beautiful Hearts organization leading a campaign highlighting the effects of sexual abuse
  • Italy is Risings with huge flashmobs on beaches all across the country
  • Myanmar is Rising with workshops that are being held at the end of October in preparation for their campaign
  • Pakistan is Rising with a V-Men campaign to engage men and boys to end violence against women and girls
  • Sudan is Rising with young women leading a campaign looking at problems with the court and judiciary systems as obstacles towards gaining justice for women

To get involved with V-Day and ONE BILLION RISING FOR JUSTICE:

 

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About One Billion Rising
One Billion Rising was the biggest mass action in human history. The campaign began as a call to action based on the staggering UN statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. On 14 February 2013, people across the world came together to strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women. Over 10,000 events took place on the ground and the campaign took over media and social media worldwide for 48 hours, trending in 7 countries – 4 times in the US alone. The wildly successful grassroots campaign was covered widely by media in all corners of world including The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, and many more. www.onebillionrising.org

About V-Day
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Playwright/Founder Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues and other artistic works. The V-Day movement has raised over $100 million; educated millions about the issue of violence against women and the efforts to end it; crafted international educational, media and PSA campaigns; reopened shelters; and funded over 13,000 community-based anti-violence programs and safe houses in Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Egypt, and Iraq. V-Day has received numerous acknowledgements and awards and is, one of the Top-Rated organizations on both Charity Navigator and Guidestar.  V-Day’s most recent global campaign, ONE BILLION RISING, galvanized over one billion women and men on a global day of action towards ending violence against women and girls. www.vday.org