This year's "16 days against violence against women" campaign ended on December 10, Human Rights Day. Mission 21 took part with a selfie campaign and shared posts from partners in the Global South. News from the Federal Parliament shows that the joint commitment to gender equality is paying off: a proposal for additional funding for a new national prevention campaign against violence is now under discussion
To mark the 16-day campaign from 25 November to 10 December, Mission 21 organized a selfie campaign at the Mission House in Basel and drew attention to the issue on social media. Some of our partner organizations also took part in the campaign, such as our Partner church in Cameroon with workshops and discussion rounds or our Partner organization Centro de la Mujer Peruana Flora Tristan in Peru with a video performance.
One of the selfies for solidarity taken on the orange sofa - thank you very much. Photo: zVg
Just how important the commitment against psychological and physical violence continues to be was demonstrated right before the start of this year's campaign: it became known that the Federal Council did not want to fund a new national prevention campaign against violence after all, whereupon over 170 organizations sent an open letter to the Federal Council calling on it to reconsider and correct this decision - Mission 21 was one of the co-signatories. On December 5, the Council of States was the first chamber to discuss the 2025-2027 task and finance plan and requested an increase in the budget for the Federal Office for Gender Equality (FOGE), with the surplus of around CHF 800,000 to be used to fund the campaign to prevent violence. It remains to be seen what the National Council will decide.
Keeping up the fight against invisible violence
This shows that even though this year's campaign has come to an end, the fight for gender equality and against violence must continue. Criminal proceedings are very rare, especially when it comes to psychological violence, because the legal situation in Switzerland is inadequate in this regard.
Psychological violence, the focus topic of this year's Switzerland-wide campaign organized by the peace organization "Frieda" (formerly cfd), is often invisible and subtle, but can have just as serious consequences as physical violence. It is also the most widespread form of violence in current or former relationships and can take the form of threats, stalking, sexualized insults or even hate mail. If you would like to take a closer look at the focus topic, you can find information in a video and a fact sheet (see links) created by Frieda.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part in the campaign - let's keep up our commitment to a world without violence!
â–º The post from our partner church PCC in Cameroon
â–º The video "Nos queremos vivas" from our partner organization Flora Tristan in Peru
â–º Our youth network young@mission21 also posted a statement
â–º What is psychological violence? Answers in the explanatory video by "Frieda"
â–ºFacts and information on the topic of psychological violence - compiled by Frieda
