Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) launched a campaign today to tie in with a 16-day initiative led by the United Nations (UN) to organise activism against gender-based violence.
TCDSU have planned a series of events during this 16-day period. Today is the UN’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The period concludes on December 10th, International Human Rights Day.
Today was marked by a balloon launch in Front Square. This is part of an annual event known as the “One in Five Women National Balloon Action” and is described by Women’s Aid, the organisation leading the “16 Days of Action” campaign in Ireland, as “a powerful way to remember the 1 in 5 women affected by domestic violence in Ireland”.
TCDSU has various other plans to mark the 16 days, including daily tweets relating to the issue, turning Trinity’s College Green facade purple and a closing event on December 10th.
Although the national campaign is focusing on the issue of domestic violence, TCDSU is keener to highlight the issue of sexual assault. This connects with TCDSU’s wider campaign relating to sexual consent which was spurred by the findings of a survey released in January. Last December, one in four of 1,038 Trinity respondents to an online survey said they had experienced a “non-consensual sexual experience”, while almost a third said that these offences had occurred within the College.
Speaking to The University Times, Louise Mulrennan, Gender Equality Officer of TCDSU, explained how the findings of the survey were an extra initiative for this year’s campaign and said: “It’s a very important campaign, and is at the right time, when Trinity students have become very aware of this issue, especially in the wake of last year’s Sexual Consent Survey”.
This is not the first year that the “16 Days of Action” campaign has been celebrated in Ireland, having first been launched in 1991. According to Women’s Aid, last year over 130 local groups organised events around the country. Mulrennan emphasised this, saying: “It’s great for SU initiatives to link up with a long-established national campaign as it increases awareness of the issue and enables the SU to reach a wide and diverse audience”.
This year is a significant one for the campaign with the first UN Framework on Preventing Violence against Women being launched. This will take place on Wednesday in New York.
Mulrennan explained how TCDSU felt the global aspect of this event meant it was vital to get involved, saying: “it is … important to be involved internationally with a campaign highlighting [the prevention of] violence against women”.
