A global institution and a private company unite to combat violence against women.
Speaking on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka reported that “one in three women worldwide will experience some kind of physical brutality or sexual abuse in her lifetime.” Mlambo-Ngcuka is executive director of UN Women, a United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the emancipation of women.
These figures are extremely disturbing, and yet according to a 2013 study, the situation is even worse in some countries where as many as 70% of women have to endure violence of various kinds. This phenomenon “knows no geographic, socioeconomic or cultural boundaries,” remarked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
His words are echoed by Morten Kjaerum, director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, who recently promoted a survey to explore this issue: “Violence against women is a serious problem in all EU societies.” How should we handle this emergency situation? “We know that [this] pandemic of violence can be stopped,” says Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“But we cannot do it alone. We need partners who help us raise awareness and promote a culture of zero tolerance toward this pervasive human rights violation.” This explains the collaborations between the private and public sectors, the best example of which would be the partnership between the United Nations and the fashion group United Colors of Benetton. For almost 20 years, the renowned Italian brand has worked with the UN to create socially engaged campaigns and projects.
Sources within the company claim that the advantage of this synergy is that “together we convey a stronger message. A partner like the UN develops important strategies and projects that we can bring to the public in a more immediate, farreaching, and creative way.”
What has this partnership led to? On 25 November 2014, they launched a global communications campaign in New York, which immediately resonated across all communications channels. The campaign features a defenseless woman surrounded by men of diverse ethnicities who seem about to stone her. The surprise, however, is that they don’t throw stones, but flower petals in a gesture of tribute. Such images manage to shock viewers without being tactless. Erik Ravelo, the campaign’s creator, told East that “the hardest part was avoiding clichés and banalities.”
That risk was sidestepped, adds Ravelo, by “deconstructing stereotypes and employing symbols and metaphors to transform acts of brutality and violence against women into images of peace and love.” A multiethnic team was also added to the mix: the campaign was created and developed by Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research center, and the heterogeneous group of creative youth, all under 25, came from various corners of the world, including Cuba, Mexico, Italy, the Dominican Republic, China, and Australia.
The goal of these initiatives, which boast the support of high impact names such as actress Emma Watson (the young witch Hermione in the Harry Potter series), is to push society to change of its own accord, from the bottom up, by raising the awareness of people worldwide to the need for prevention programs, and by educating the new generations in a culture based on mutual acknowledgement, respect for diversity and gender equality.
It is therefore of vital importance that each message reach as wide an audience as possible. In order to achieve this goal, the various constituent elements of the UN Women campaign, and the video in particular, are transmitted across all social channels: from Facebook and Twitter to Instagram and YouTube, as well as on the official websites of the United Colors of Benetton brand and of the UNHATE Foundation, in a concerted effort that also involved the United Nations’ social channels.
Benetton’s socially engaged initiative features more than just images. Ravelo also created an art installation, Facing, which consists of a series of female portraits on metal plates. The works of art will be auctioned in 2015 to raise funds for UN Women. And yet another surprise: the faces were etched using acid.
“Acid attacks are common in many parts of the world. These women are the victims of cruel acts of vengeance and, if they survive, they have to live on without a face, scarred both physically and psychologically for the rest of their lives. In this series of portraits, the same weapon is used to create beauty, not to destroy it,” Ravelo explains..
As for other social initiatives, the UNHATE Foundation, the heart of Benetton Group’s social engagement, will open its Web platform UNHATE News (the result of a collaboration between Benetton Group and the United Nations Department of Public Information) to young people between the ages of 18 and 30 as a way of collecting ideas that will then be shortlisted. Ten contributions will be selected and then developed as concrete and sustainable projects.
Efforts are being made on all fronts, although it is very difficult to gauge the success of such projects and to assess their concrete results – especially in terms of their nearly intangible cultural and social impact. Nevertheless, “If even just one woman will be spared from violence as a result of this campaign, we will deem it a success,” says Ravelo.
It is a reminder to us all that in order to create a better world for ourselves, we must have dreamed it first.
A global institution and a private company unite to combat violence against women.
Speaking on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka reported that “one in three women worldwide will experience some kind of physical brutality or sexual abuse in her lifetime.” Mlambo-Ngcuka is executive director of UN Women, a United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the emancipation of women.
