World women’s advocacy and campaign “One Billion Rising”
NGO News Report :: Uddome Uttorone Shotokoti – a campaign of Bangladeshi women and men, united together with the world women’s advocacy and campaign “One Billion Rising”- has been mobilising, engaging, and energizing people nationwide to join the global women’s effort to end violence against women.
Following our previous years’ efforts, “Uddome Uttorone Shotokoti” kept continuing advocacy in 2015, and are organizing various events at villages and cities on 14 February, 2015. The campaign is organizing a press conference on 12 February, 2015 Thursday, at 11:00 am.
As the UN Human Rights report continues to draw attention of every nation to the fact that 1 in 3 women on the planet is being beaten or raped during her lifetime, the number adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. In this context, One Billion Rising gradually gained momentum as a worldwide movement.
In the years 2013 and 2014 people of Bangladesh identified them with the movement as “Uddome Uttorone Shotokoti”. They stood up, sought justice and demanded an end to violence together with more than a billion men and women in 206 countries in series of events organized around the world on 14 February, 2014.
Our agenda in 2015 is “Uddome Uttorane Shatokotir Biplob” (One Billion Rising REVOLUTION). We have seen that in Bangladesh our demand for justice carried a grave importance in the context of violence against women. Denial and delay in justice has been a common phenomena here. Police reports show that about 2,00,862 women were subjected to violence between 2002 to 2014. Violence conducted in many forms; i.e. acid attacks, kidnapping, rape, murder followed by gang rape, trafficking, killing & torture for dowry and political killings.
Data or report on how many of these cases have been tried and given justice to has never been published. In 2015 behind the smoke screen of the rising petrol bomb blasts, burning of buses and trucks, sabotage of economy and social peace, violence against women continues across the country and people barely notice or question such incidents. We therefore, call women and men to strengthen their solidarity to accelerate resistance nationwide to stop violence against women and girls.
At the press conference we will share with the representatives of the press, the concerns of people across the country about the increasing violence against women and girls and upcoming programs of “Uddome Uttorone Shatokoti-r Biplob”. It will be held on 12th February, 2015, Thursday at 11:00 am at the Sagor Runi Hall of Dhaka Reporters’ Unity. By ensuring active participation of your much esteemed Newspapers/ Television channels/Online news portals, and by communicating our concerns to the people of Bangladesh you have always been a great support to the rights campaign of women of Bangladesh and I hope you’ll do so this year too.
The panel on the press conference includes among others, Khushi Kabir, OBR Bangladesh Coordinator, Fawzia Khondoker, Core Committee member of SANGAT, and Farah Kabir, Country Director of ActionAid Bangladesh, Jobayed Hossain, Plan International, and Monica Jahan Bose, a Bangladeshi-American artist, lawyer, and activist.
