Violence is Not our Culture Campaign

The Violence is Not our Culture (VNC) Campaign was founded in 2007 and is a global network of organisations and individuals committed to end all forms of discrimination and violence against women (VAW) being justified in the name of culture and/or religion. Such forms of gender-based violence include stoning, whipping/lashing, forced marriage, child marriage, female genital mutilation and “honour” killings.

The campaign was catalysed by the Stop Stoning Forever Campaign in Iran and by other groups working on the intersections between VAW and culture from Nigeria, Indonesia, and Pakistan and is now present in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

The campaign takes actions on behalf of women and girls at risk of culturally justified violence against women (CVAW), supports local campaigns and initiatives with capacity building, and acts as an information and knowledge base on gender-based discrimination. It also engages the struggles of its partners with the strategic use of the human rights framework, targeting states and the UN human rights system.

In 2010, the VNC campaign in partnership with the APC Women Programme successfully held regional workshops on online activism for VNC activists in Asia and Africa. The initiative led to the development and publication of “Strategising online activism: a toolkit” in order to help campaigners to understand why and how information and communication technologies can be appropriated by women's rights and human rights groups for their advocacy.