Founder | V (formerly Eve Ensler) |
|---|---|
Global Director | Monique Wilson |
| Website | onebillionrising |
One Billion Rising is a global campaign, founded by Eve Ensler, to end rape and sexual violence against women. [1] [2] [3] It was started in 2012 as part of the V-Day movement. The "billion" refers to the UN statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime, [4] or about one billion. The campaign expands each year with new themes and artistic actions. In 2024, the theme of the campaign is Rise for Freedom [5] . "This year's campaign will escalate the collective actions of activists worldwide, and amplify their call for systematic changes towards ending violence against women and children once and for all," said OBR global director Monique Wilson. [6]
The campaign was initiated by playwright and activist Eve Ensler (known for her play The Vagina Monologues ), and her organization V-Day. [7] It was partly inspired by Missouri congressman Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" and pregnancy comments. Shocked by Akin's remarks, Ensler wrote an open letter in response. [8]
On February 14 2013, the One Billion Rising campaign culminated in the biggest mass global action to end violence against women ever with tens of thousands of events held. [9] Singer/songwriter Tena Clark produced a music video entitled "Break the Chain", to accompany the campaign.
By September 20, 2012, people from 160 countries had signed up to take part in the campaign. [10]
Around 5,000 organizations had joined the campaign, which has also been aided or endorsed by religious ministers, movement builders, actors Rosario Dawson, Robert Redford, [11] [12] and Stella Creasy, British Labour Co-operative politician. [13]
In a video message dedicated to Jyoti Singh, the Indian student who died in December after she was gang-raped by six men on a Delhi bus, Anoushka Shankar disclosed she had been abused by a trusted friend of her parents over several years when she was a child. In her message she said she did not believe she will ever recover from the abuse she had suffered: "...as a woman I find I'm frequently living in fear, afraid to walk along at night, afraid to answer a man who asks for the time, afraid I'm going to be judged or treated in ways based on the way I might choose to dress or the make up I might choose to wear, and you know, enough is enough. I'm rising for women like Jyoti, for women like her, with the amazing women of my country I'm rising for the child in me who I don't think will ever fully recover from what happened to her." [14]
On February 14, 2013, the rally was held in more than 190 countries. [15] The one-day event was held after a call for one billion women around the world to join to dance in a show of collective strength. [16] The event was held on the 15th anniversary of the V-Day movement. [17] The word "billion" refers the statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten in their lifetime, or about one billion. [18]
Known as One Billion Rising for Justice, the event was held in February 2014. Bollywood Superstar Aamir Khan, who had earlier voiced such issues through his debut TV Show Satyamev Jayate, lent his support to One Billion Rising Campaign in New Delhi. [19] In Los Angeles, a number of events were held in protest of violence against women soldiers and prisoners. A number of celebrities participated, including Jane Fonda, Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei, and Dylan McDermott. [20]
Known as One Billion Rising Revolution, more than 200 countries participated. In Italy, more than 100 cities had events and all 34 provinces of Afghanistan had events. [21]
Kimberlé Crenshaw, prominent Critical Race Theory figure and professor at UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School, has associated with One Billion Rising to help create awareness of the difficulties girls of color face in New York and Boston schools. These issues include the school-to-prison pipeline, stereotyping, and the disparity of the suspension rationales and rates compared to white girls (the rates being 10 times more likely for the former). [21]
According to the campaign, "For the fourth year, globally One Billion Rising activists are planning their rising events, artistic uprisings, panel discussions, press conference, town halls, movies, articles, gatherings, poetry, art, posters, actions, and protests to take place on and about Feb 14th. With the theme – One Billion Rising: Rise for Revolution 2016, this year's campaign will escalate the collective actions of activists worldwide, and amplify their call for systemic changes towards ending violence against women and girls once and for all.
Rising events will continue to focus on highlighting and creating bold artistic initiatives that reflect the actions taking place in communities. The theme Rise for Revolution allows creative and artistic expressions, multi-sectoral involvement, and provides a unique space to engage people from all walks of life. It allows the use of imagination, art and political actions – and allows everyone the freedom to localise their campaigns. REVOLUTION can bring everyone from the personal to the political – from the "I" to the "We". It harnesses collective energy because it is hopeful and envisions possibilities and a future." [22]
The 2017 event was held in February. [23]
In September 2014, the campaign released the One Billion Rising for Justice video which includes footage from amateur and professional videographers from around the world, as well as interviews with global coordinators. In January of 2015, the "Rising" video premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. [24] For 2016, the "Rising Revolution" Video Series was released featuring a range of videos that "showcase the collective energy of Revolution by highlighting artistic expressions and RISING victories from around the world with more being added as the campaign unfolds." [25]
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) is a women's organization based in Kabul, Afghanistan, that promotes women's rights and secular democracy. It was founded in 1977 by Meena Keshwar Kamal, an Afghan student activist who was assassinated in February 1987 for her political activities. The group, which supports non-violent strategies, had its initial office in Kabul, Afghanistan, but then moved to Pakistan in the early 1980s.
International Women's Day (IWD) is a holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement. IWD gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women. Spurred by the universal female suffrage movement, IWD originated from labor movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century.
The Gabriela Women's Party, or simply GABRIELA, is a progressive Filipino political party that advocates for women's issues and represents Filipino women in the House of Representatives.
The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play written in 1996 by Eve Ensler which developed and premiered at HERE Arts Center, Off-Off-Broadway in New York and was followed by an Off-Broadway run in at Westside Theatre. The play explores consensual and nonconsensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation, direct and indirect encounters with reproduction, vaginal care, menstrual periods, prostitution, and several other topics through the eyes of women with various ages, races, sexualities, and other differences.
Internet activism involves the use of electronic-communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular information to large and specific audiences, as well as coordination. Internet technologies are used by activists for cause-related fundraising, community building, lobbying, and organizing. A digital-activism campaign is "an organized public effort, making collective claims on a target authority, in which civic initiators or supporters use digital media." Research has started to address specifically how activist/advocacy groups in the U.S. and in Canada use social media to achieve digital-activism objectives.
V, formerly Eve Ensler, is an American playwright, author, performer, feminist, and activist. V is best known for her play The Vagina Monologues. In 2006 Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called The Vagina Monologues "probably the most important piece of political theater of the last decade."
Artivism is a portmanteau word combining art and activism, and is sometimes also referred to as Social Artivism.
V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls started by author, playwright and activist Eve Ensler. V-Day began on February 14, 1998, when the very first V-Day benefit performance of Ensler's play The Vagina Monologues took place in NYC, raising over $250k for local anti-violence groups. V-Day was formed and became a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to raise funds and awareness to end violence against all women and girls. Through V-Day, activists stage royalty free, benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues "to fund local programs, support safe houses, rape crisis centers, and domestic violence shelters, change laws to protect women and girls, and educate local communities to raise awareness and change social attitudes toward violence against women" during the month February, with most of the benefit productions taking place on or about February 14. Ensler has been quoted as saying that it was women's reactions to the play that inspired her and her colleagues to launch V-Day. The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.
The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The premise of the day is to raise awareness around the world that women are subjected to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden. For 2014, the official theme framed by the UN Secretary-General’s campaign UNiTE to End Violence against Women, was Orange your Neighbourhood. For 2018, the official theme was "Orange the World:#HearMeToo", for 2019 it was "Orange the World: Generation Equality Stands Against Rape", for 2020 it was "Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!", for 2021 it was "Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!", for 2022 the theme was "UNiTE! Activism to end violence against women and girls" and for 2023 it is "UNiTE! Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women & Girls! #No Excuse".
INCITE! Women, Gender Non-Conforming, and Trans people of Color Against Violence, formerly known as INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, is a United States-based national activist organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities. INCITE! is organized by a national collective of women of color and has active chapters and affiliates in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Denver, Albuquerque, Austin, New Orleans, Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Ann Arbor, Binghamton, Chicago, and a chapter in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. INCITE! was founded in 2000.
International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is a United Nations-sponsored annual awareness day that takes place on February 6 as part of the UN's efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation. It was first introduced in 2003.
Anne-christine d'Adesky is an American author, journalist and activist of French and Haitian descent living in New York. She has maintained a deep relationship with Haiti, reporting the 2010 earthquake from a feminist angle, especially noting the impact of the disaster on the lives of teenage girls. She has also contributed to humanitarian projects in East Africa, as well as conducting extensive research into HIV/AIDS and its treatment worldwide.
The Center for Women's Global Leadership, based at Rutgers University, was founded in 1989 by Charlotte Bunch, the former executive director and an internationally renowned activist for women's human rights. Executive Director Krishanti Dharmaraj is also the founder of the Dignity Index and co-founder of WILD for Human Rights and the Sri Lanka Children's Fund. The former executive director, Radhika Balakrishnan, is now the faculty director, and a professor in the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers, chair of the Board of the US Human Rights Network, and a board member of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Located on Douglass Residential College at Rutgers University, CWGL is a unit of International Programs within the School of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the Institute for Women's Leadership, a consortium of women's programs at Rutgers.
Myriam Merlet was a political activist, scholar and economist who served as Chief of Staff of Haiti's Ministry for Gender and the Rights of Women, from 2006 to 2008. One of the particular focuses of her work was on how rape and rape culture is used as a political weapon, and was not considered a criminal offense in Haiti until 2005.
Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace is a peace movement started in 2003 by women in Monrovia, Liberia, Africa, that worked to end the Second Liberian Civil War. Organized by Crystal Roh Gawding and social workers Leymah Gbowee and Comfort Freeman, the movement began despite Liberia having extremely limited civil rights. Thousands of Muslim and Christian women from various classes mobilized their efforts, staged silent nonviolence protests that included a sex strike and the threat of a curse.
Three Weeks in May: Speaking Out On Rape, A Political Art Piece was an extended work of performance art and activism by Suzanne Lacy. The piece took place in Los Angeles, California from May 8 to May 24, 1977.
The mass sexual assault of women in public has been documented in Egypt since 2005, when Egyptian security forces and their agents were accused of using it as a weapon against female protesters during a political demonstration in Tahrir Square, Cairo on 25 May. The behavior spread, and by 2012 sexual assault by crowds of young men was seen at protests and festivals in Egypt.
Sister Namibia, formerly known as the Sister Namibia Collective, is a feminist nonpartisan non-governmental organization (NGO) located in Windhoek, Namibia. The organization was established in 1989 on the eve of Namibia's independence from South Africa. Sister Namibia advocates for women's rights and engages in activities that promote full gender equality in a world free from violence, discrimination, and oppression. From its inception, the organization's main function has been to produce Sister Namibia Magazine. In the 1990s Sister Namibia expanded its operations to include educational programs, research, activism, media engagement, and cultural activities in support of women's rights.
Lepa Mladjenovic is a feminist, lesbian, anti-war activist who is a pioneer of second-wave feminism in Serbia. She is a feminist counselor for women survivors of male violence or lesbophobia, a workshop facilitator, a writer and lecturer and a member of several international boards and networks which are concerned about lesbian rights and violence against women. Mladjenovic is considered a symbol of women's activism in the former Yugoslavia. Born in Belgrade, she spent her childhood summer holidays in Sarajevo and at the Adriatic Sea. As of 2017, Mladjenovic lives in Belgrade.
Khushi Kabir is a Bangladeshi social activist, feminist, and environmentalist.
