{"id":259325,"date":"2025-11-25T13:51:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T17:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=259325"},"modified":"2025-11-25T15:22:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T19:22:45","slug":"wish-marks-start-of-16-days-of-activism-calls-for-collective-action-to-end-digital-violence-against-women-and-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wish-marks-start-of-16-days-of-activism-calls-for-collective-action-to-end-digital-violence-against-women-and-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"WISH Marks Start of 16 Days of Activism, Calls for Collective Action to End Digital Violence Against Women and Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Wadadli Initiative for Self-care and Healing<\/a> (WISH) today joins the global community in launching the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violenc<\/a>e, under this year\u2019s UNiTE campaign theme: \u201cUNiTE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As digital abuse<\/a> rapidly becomes one of the most widespread and harmful forms of gender-based violence, 2025\u2019s theme emphasizes the urgent need to address online harassment, image-based abuse, cyberstalking, deepfake pornography, doxxing, and the growing manipulation of digital tools<\/a> to harm women and girls.<\/p>

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The 16-day campaign, running from November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to December 10 (Human Rights Day), is a powerful reminder that gender-based violence, online or offline, is not a \u201cprivate matter<\/a>\u201d but a public health crisis, a human rights issue, and a profound threat to mental wellbeing<\/a>.<\/p>

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This year\u2019s theme underscores how digital violence disproportionately affects women with public visibility, including activists, journalists, women in politics, creators, and young women navigating social media spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also highlights that online abuse often leads to offline harm, including coercion, intimidation, physical violence, and long-term psychological trauma.<\/p>

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WISH\u2019s 2025 focus aligns with the global call to strengthen digital safety, challenge harmful online behaviours, and demand accountability from platforms, institutions, and systems that enable abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot speak honestly about mental health in Antigua and Barbuda without confronting the reality of gender-based violence, especially the digital forms that are becoming harder to escape,\u201d said Chaneil Imhoff, Founder of WISH. <\/p>

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\u201cEvery day, women and girls are navigating cyberbullying, threats, image-based abuse, and online humiliation that follow them everywhere they go. Digital violence leaves deep emotional scars and can lead to real-life harm. <\/p>

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This year\u2019s 16 Days of Activism is a call to break that silence, centre survivors, and build systems that protect rather than punish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the 16 Days, WISH will be using its platforms to amplify the voices of survivors, advocates, and digital rights champions working to create safer online spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WISH is also encouraging workplaces, schools, parents, youth groups, faith-based institutions, and community leaders to take action by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n