Today marks the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children, a global period of truth-telling, resistance, and collective remembrance.
Every year, this campaign summons us to confront the violence that hides in homes, whispers through institutions, and lingers silently across digital spaces. Yet 2025 feels different. The world is shifting, the violence is shifting, and so too must our strategies, our courage, and our voices.
This year’s theme, “UNITE to End Digital Violence Against All Women and Girls,” reminds us that the battleground is no longer only physical — it is also on our screens, in our WhatsApps, in our comment sections, in our search histories, and in the invisible spaces where technology and misogyny intersect.
Yesterday, Women’s Voice and Leadership – South Africa (RWVL-SA) and Gender Links hosted the national launch webinar, creating an important collective space where activists, survivors, community organisations and thought-leaders came together to reflect on what justice means in an increasingly digital world.
Over three hours, we listened, we learned, we challenged ourselves, and above all, we affirmed that digital harm is real harm. Online abuse is not “just words” — it is a weapon. It silences, destroys reputations, isolates survivors, retraumatises women, and follows us long after the device is switched off. As TGPSA, we know this reality intimately.
Many of our beneficiaries and even some of our team members have been targeted through digital harassment, impersonation, voice-note manipulation, and coordinated online misinformation campaigns. What we witnessed today is that South African women are not alone in this struggle; across the continent and the globe, women are fighting the same unseen war.
As TGPSA, we step into this 16 Days campaign with intention. Our community-based Paralegal Training Program has prepared a cohort of in-training community based paralegals who will be releasing a powerful series of blogs throughout this period.
Written in their own language, their own voice, and their own cultural reality, these pieces will tackle the three pillars of our advocacy focus: the criminal justice system, mental health, and economic freedom.
These are not abstract concepts, they are lived experiences. They are the daily struggles of women who must navigate life while holding trauma, poverty, stigma, and institutional neglect on their shoulders. Technology-facilitated violence, too, will be a strong theme, because our paralegals know the truth: digital harm is often the first attack before the physical harm comes.
Throughout the next sixteen days, we will be sharing blogs across our social media platforms and amplifying the voices of women who are too often spoken for, spoken over, or erased completely. We will also be collaborating with partner CBOs who wish to contribute guest blogs or have us publish their stories on our platforms. This is not just content — it is knowledge-building. It is resistance. It is a reclaiming of narrative, one paragraph at a time. Every story shared is a refusal to be silenced.
And on 10 December, we will close this campaign with a TGPSA-hosted webinar where we will reflect on the blogs published, share analytics and insights from our platforms, discuss community responses, and evaluate both the progress made and the challenges that remain.
We will gather as a network unified by grief, resilience, accountability, and the shared dream of a South Africa where women no longer have to live on high alert, either in their homes or on their phones.
As 16 Days begins, we commit ourselves once again to advocacy that is grounded in truth, shaped by lived experience, and strengthened by community.
We commit to standing with survivors, to calling out digital violence for what it is, and to reminding the world that safety is a right, not a privilege. May this period be a catalyst, not a checkbox. May it move us from awareness to action, from silence to solidarity, and from vulnerability to collective power.
Let the voices rise. Let the stories be told. Let the truth be louder than the violence.
