Every year Human Rights Day on 10th December marks the final day of the 16 Days of Activism; a global period of reflection and action focused on ending violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence. This year, with our 16 Days 16 Voices campaign, we highlighted the voices of survivors, specialists, frontline workers and community leaders.
Today we honour them. We honour the right of every woman and girl in Wales to live safely and without fear. And we recognise that this right is under threat in ways both familiar and newly emerging.
This year has been shaped by a growing and worrying trend. Across the UK and beyond, violence against women and girls is increasingly being used as a tool for fear, division and prejudice. Instead of centering survivors’ needs, their experiences are being turned into soundbites that incite hatred toward migrants, refugees and racially minoritised communities. At the same time, real violence with racial or ideological motivations is rising, including cases of rape and harassment where misogyny intertwines with racism and xenophobia.
This moment calls for honesty and clarity. The fight to end violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence is a human rights struggle. It should never be weaponised with political narratives, and it must never be twisted into a justification for discrimination.
VAWDASV Is a Human Rights Crisis
Across the UK, violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence continues to reach unacceptable levels. Support services are stretched, and survivors still report significant barriers to accessing safety and timely justice. In 2024, the National Police Chief’s Council stated that violence against women is a national emergency in England and Wales. Their report revealed that around two million women a year are estimated to be victims of violence. More worryingly, this figure was declared to be underestimated as most offences are not reported.
VAWDASV is a deep structural problem rooted in inequality, misogyny, and an imbalance of power that manifests at home, at work, online, and in public spaces. It affects every community, every class, every geographic area in the world and it must be viewed as a systemic issue which needs to then be dealt with a whole systems approach to eradicate and prevent it fully.
The Growing Threat of Hate, Racism and Fear
In recent years, far-right groups and certain political voices have exploited very real public concern about women’s safety. They present violence against women as a problem caused by specific communities rather than by systemic inequality and misogyny. They draw attention to offences committed by racially minoritised perpetrators while ignoring the overwhelming evidence that most violence is perpetrated by someone the victim already knows.
At the same time, we have seen cases this year where minoritised women were brutally raped and subjected to sexual violence because of their race or perceived identity. These are not isolated events. They reflect a wider climate in which racism, misogyny and hatred are increasingly normalised.
The weaponisation of VAWDASV harms survivors in two ways. It reduces their experiences to political instruments, and it fuels hostility toward communities who already face heightened levels of discrimination. This rhetoric fractures solidarity, obscures the real drivers of violence and creates an environment in which BAME and other minoritised women are simultaneously targeted and silenced.
To end VAWDASV, we must confront misogyny in all forms, including when it intersects with racism, xenophobia, ableism, homophobia and transphobia. Survivors’ safety cannot be separated from the safety and dignity of all marginalised groups.
Why Challenging Narratives Matters
Human Rights Day is a reminder that rights are not self-sustaining. They are protected only when societies actively choose to uphold them. This is why we cannot allow harmful narratives about violence against women to go unchallenged.
When falsehoods spread, they shape public opinion. When fear is cultivated, it becomes easier for discriminatory policies to emerge. When silence takes hold, systems avoid accountability.
It is essential to question the stories that are told about violence, who they blame, and who they erase. We must recognise when reports of sexual harm are being used to justify suspicion, surveillance, or hostility. We need to challenge claims that are rooted in division rather than evidence. And we must pay attention to which survivors are believed and which are overlooked.
Upholding human rights means defending the truth. It means insisting that women’s safety is not a bargaining chip. It means building responses that centre survivors’ needs, not political agendas.
Collective Voice, Accountability and the Path Forward
The final day of the 16 Days campaign is not an ending. It is an invitation to continue the work with renewed clarity.
We must demand real accountability from systems that fail survivors. This includes adequate funding for specialist services, trauma informed responses in policing and justice, accessible housing pathways and immigration systems that do not place women at further risk. It means being willing to hold institutions, leaders, and media accountable when they perpetuate harmful narratives or neglect their responsibilities.
Most importantly, it means using our collective voice. Social change has never come from silence. It comes from communities refusing to accept what is harmful, insisting on truth, and standing in solidarity with those most at risk. When we speak together, we push back against hatred, misinformation, and against the silencing of survivors. And we create conditions in which a safer future is possible.
On this Human Rights Day, we reaffirm a simple principle. Every woman and girl in Wales deserves to live in safety, dignity and freedom. No community should live in fear. No survivor’s story should be used as a weapon to create hate. And no one should have their rights eroded by narratives rooted in prejudice. Together, we can challenge discrimination. We can question rhetoric designed to divide us. We can hold systems accountable.
Our collective voice is our strength. Let us continue to use it.
-written by Yashiba Sanil, Communications and Campaigns Officer, Welsh Women’s Aid