16 Days of Activism 2026: Ensure justice, protect survivors, end impunity

From 25 November to 10 December 2026, mark the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence under the theme: “UNiTE to End Violence Against Women and Girls: Ensure justice, protect survivors, end impunity.”

Violence against women and girls affects one in three women. It is one of the most pervasive human rights violations worldwide, yet for many survivors, justice remains out of reach.

In parallel, funding cuts are reducing access to critical services and weakening the women’s rights organizations that help survivors navigate justice systems, obtain legal support, and rebuild their lives. For women in rural and remote areas and women and girls facing intersecting forms of discrimination and violence, the path to justice is even more challenging.

Strong laws matter – but laws alone are not enough. Survivors need safe ways to report violence, accessible and affordable support and services, and justice systems that respond effectively. This means holding perpetrators accountable and ensuring that institutions answer for failures that allow violence to continue with impunity.

The 2026 campaign calls for justice that works for all women and girls – whether at home, at work, in public life, or across digital spaces. Building on the 2025 focus on digital violence, this year’s campaign recognizes that violence online and offline happens on a continuum, with the two often overlapping and reinforcing each other. They require commitment and action on prevention, protection, accountability, and redress.

What does justice for women and girls who experience violence look like?

Justice is not only a court judgment or criminal conviction. It begins with survivors being heard, believed, and treated with dignity. For women and girls who experience violence, justice can mean:

• Immediate protection from further harm or retaliation for them and their children.
• Safe, confidential, and accessible ways to report violence.
• Access to legal aid, health care, psychosocial support, shelter, and other essential services.
• Timely, impartial, and survivor-centred investigations and proceedings.
• Accountability for perpetrators and for institutions that fail to act.
• Effective remedies and reparations that respond to survivors’ needs.
• Justice processes that respect survivors’ choices, safety, and agency and do not expose them to further trauma.

Justice must be accessible to all women and girls in all their diversity, including indigenous women, women with disabilities, and LGBTIQ+ people, among others. It must respond to their circumstances and remove the financial, physical, social, and institutional barriers that prevent them from seeking help.

It must also extend across digital spaces. Online harassment, cyberstalking, image-based abuse, deepfakes, gendered disinformation, and other forms of digital violence can cause serious psychological, social, economic, and physical harm. Survivors must be able to report abuse, access support, and obtain meaningful remedy – online and offline.

Four actions to ensure justice and end impunity

• Make justice systems work for survivors: Governments must adopt and enforce comprehensive laws addressing all forms of violence against women and girls. Police, prosecutors, and judges need the resources, training, and accountability mechanisms to respond effectively. When survivors report violence, they must receive a timely and effective response. Perpetrators must face consequences, institutions and organizations must be held accountable, and survivors must have access to legal aid, remedies, and reparations.
• Protect and support survivors at every step: Survivors need accessible, adequately funded, and coordinated services, including healthcare, psychosocial support, legal assistance, shelters, and protection measures. Responses must be survivor-centred, trauma-informed, age-responsive, and confidential – prioritizing survivors’ safety, dignity, consent, and choices before, during, and after any justice process. When reporting violence, survivors must be protected from any retaliation or threats.
• Ensure justice across online and offline spaces: Governments and technology companies must address digital violence as part of the wider global crisis of violence against women and girls. Digital platforms must provide accessible reporting and redress, remove harmful content promptly, improve transparency, and build safety into the design of their products. Laws, institutions, and services must evolve alongside technology so that digital violence is recognized, investigated, and addressed.
• Invest in prevention and women’s rights organizations: Justice also means stopping violence before it happens. Governments, donors, and institutions must invest in evidence-based prevention, legal and digital literacy, and programmes that challenge misogyny and harmful masculinities. For services to be adequately provided, institutions must change norms and end patriarchal stereotypes and attitudes. Women’s rights organizations and feminist movements need sustained, flexible, and long-term funding to provide services, support survivors, monitor justice systems, and advocate for change.

How you can take action with the UNiTE Campaign for 16 Days of Activism

• During the 16 Days of Activism, from 25 November to 10 December, organize visible and bold activities that call for justice for survivors and an end to impunity. Partner with women’s organizations, survivors, youth-led groups, justice actors, governments, media, and community leaders.
• Use or wear the colour orange as a symbol of hope and a future free of violence against women. 
• Learn and share this year’s campaign materials – more resources will be added here soon.
• Support or fund women’s rights organizations and survivor services.
• Host discussions, debates, and local campaigns that spotlight the barriers to justice that survivors face, challenge victim-blaming and attitudes that enable violence, and call on decision-makers to strengthen laws, services, and accountability.