Your Bill of Rights: 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence Campaign

On 25 November every year, the activists engaging in anti-violence against women around the world have been carrying on the campaigns against gender-based violence that marked the International Day for the Elimination of all Forms of Violence against Women. These campaigns last in 16 days, which will be ending on 10 December that coincides with the International Human Rights Day.

This 16-day campaign is one of the events to raise awareness in opposing all forms of violence against women all over the world and to enforce the struggles that could be done to break the chain of gender-based violence. 

The one thing could be performed is that the self-understanding and the acceptance of basic rights in our lives. This must come first before considering the other things. With the knowledge of these basic rights, it is expected that it can change the pattern of violence and oppression that hopefully would become a new pattern of controlling our own lives. Some basic rights will be outlined below.

Your Bill of Rights (Basic rights in our lives):

1. You have the right to be you.
2. You have the right to put yourself first.
3. You have the right to be safe.
4. You have the right to love and be loved.
5.  You have the right to be treated with respect.
6. You have the right to be human---NOT PERFECT.
7. You have the right to be angry and protest if you are treated unfairly or abusively by anyone.
8.  You have the right to your own privacy.
9.  You have the right to have your own opinion, to express them, and to be taken seriously.
10.  You have the right to earn and control your own money.
11.  You have the right to ask questions about anything that affects your life.
12.  You have the right to make decisions that affects you.
13.  You have the right to grow and change (and that includes changing your mind).
14.  You have the right to say NO.
15.  You have the right to make mistakes.
16.  You have the right NOT to be responsible for other adult's problems.
17.  You have the right NOT to be liked by everyone.
18.  You have the right to control your own life and to change it if you are not happy with it as it is. *

 

Reference: 

Goodman, Marilyn Shear and Beth Creager Fallon (1995), Supplement to Pattern Changing for Abused Women:  An Educational Program, Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publication, Inc.