Civil society organisations, multi-sector departments commit towards coordinated actions against gender-based violence

To accelerate concrete policy response and promote zero tolerance to gender-based violence across all spheres of society, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and its partners: Department of Women Affairs, ActionAid Bangladesh, Ain o Salish Kendra, and CARE Bangladesh with support from the Canadian Embassy and Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands have observed the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign through organising an online live event recently titled 'Preventing and Responding to Gender-Based Violence: Everyone has a Role to Play'.

The live event has created an opportunity to exchange dialogue between more than three hundred activists and policymakers, civil society organisations, service providers, media representatives, and the public that helped to increase awareness and galvanise advocacy efforts to end violence against women and girls. The event was viewed live by more than thousands of people through various social media platforms.

In the event, speakers have emphasised ensuring multi-sectoral public services for gender-based violence survivors in a coordinated and non-discriminative means, so that it encourages the survivors to report violence and get justice hence reduce the violence.

A policy note on the 'Access to GBV services: Reality, challenges, and recommendations' was presented by Ainoon Naher, PhD, Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, Jahangirnagar University where different services gaps and recommendation towards a more effective system of multi-sectoral services for GBV survivors were discussed.

In the panel discussion 'Leave no-one behind' the honorable panelists raised the concern on the discriminative attitude towards the intersectional community that isolates and makes them an 'invisible' population in the society. They urge to ensure multi-sectoral public services and equal opportunities for all the survivors irrespective of any dimensions identities, e.g. class, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexuality, gender, age, marital status, language and location. The session was moderated by Faustina Pereira, Executive Committee Member, Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), concluded by empasising on ensuring equity before equality and being more sensitive towards treating people differently depending on their needs.

The guest of honor of the event HE Benoit Prefontaine, Ambassador, Canadian Embassy said, "The solution of preventing gender-based violence is respecting other human beings. The current increased statistic of violence should not be viewed as just background data, but as an urgent call to enhance the action against sexual violence." and Dr Asa Torkelsson, Representative, UNFPA said, "We say 'Enough!' to domestic violence; 'Enough!' to rape; 'Enough!' to harmful practices such as child marriage; and 'Enough!' to sexual violence. Everyone has a role to play in making sure we end all forms of gender-based violence, and today's event is a testament to how each of us can play our part, collectively, and individually."

The event was also insightful with the speeches of honorable guests. Farah Kabir, Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh has expressed her strong position on zero tolerance to child marriage and emphasised educating girls and engaging men and boys to sensitize on the harmful effects of power over to reduce all sorts of violence. Golam Monowar Kamal, Executive Director, Ain o Salish Kendra

(ASK) has shared some recommendations to prevent violence that includes taking actions to implement the existing laws and directives of the high court to prevent sexual harassment and all forms of violence against women and girls, and Ram Das, Deputy Country Director-Humanitarian, CARE Bangladesh has urged to take the pledge to prevent all forms of violence at home, workplace and in the society at large and to concentrate on removing the existing disparity across the gender.

During the panel discussion with the multi-sectoral departments on the way forward to increase the access to GBV related services the honorable panelists from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Department of Women Affairs; Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs; Department of Social Service; and Bangladesh Police, Police Headquarters have shared about the efforts of the government to tackle the increasing violence and committed to ensuring a coordinated, non-discriminative and unified actions to prevent gender-based violence.

The two-hour-long event ended with a commitment to take prompt collaboration between all sectors to find innovative solutions to end gender-based violence.