UNIC UNITE: Ending Violence Against Women

The 16 days of Activism against Gender Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. The campaign is used as an organizing strategy by individuals and organizations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. In support of this civil society initiative, the United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to campaign calls for global actions to increase awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations.

Within this framework, University College Cork, Koç University and the University of Deusto organised a VMP with the aims of:

-Connecting academic and civil society stakeholders across the UNIC consortium who are active in addressing the local to global challenge of Ending Violence Against Women -Exploring potential for collaborative action between and across the UNIC cities

In March 2022, Professor Maggie O’Neill (UCC) led delegates- including WP5 coordinators of Koç University and University of Deusto- from the UNIC Engaged Research Strategy Forum on a Walking Pedagogy Tour of Cork City ending with a meeting hosted by the Sexual Violence Centre Cork.

The participants were from academia, community organisations and CityLabs. The group discussion on the day highlighted key issues and participants were interested to explore the opportunity to connect, co-operate and collaborate across the UNIC cities on the challenge of ending violence against women. The group agreed a first action would be a virtual meeting as a platform to take the dialogue forward.

The VMP was divided in two parts:

-A round table with community and academic partners to get to know how the challenge is being addressed at different levels -A facilitated group diolague among participants to share experience and insights on this local to global challenge and explore some possible areas of focus for UNIC collaboration

Program

Welcome and Introduction • Ciara O'Halloran, University College Cork Works and Field Experience of Sexual Violence Center Cork • Dola Twomey

Participatory Action Research: Methodologies for Building Equality and Justice, Feminist Walk Cork • Prof. Maggie O’Neill, Dept of Sociology & Criminology, University College Cork

RESISTIRE Project • Prof. Dolores Morondo, Human Rights Institute, University of Deusto • Estibaliz Linares Bahillo, Deusto Social Values Research Team member, University of Deusto, consultant at Sortzen.org

Case Study, Works of Turkish Psychological Association-Women and Gender Studies Unit • Ekin Çakır, PhD Reseacher, Koç University Trauma and Stress Research Lab, Turkish Psychological Association-Women and Gender Studies Unit

Group Discussion, Wrap Up