FEMNET | CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S JOURNAL (Issue 5: Jul - Dec 2012)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: THE AFRICAN WOMEN’S JOURNAL (Issue 5: Jul – Dec 2012)

By FEMNET
20 Sep 2012

THEME: Women and Men Speaking Out and Acting On Ending Gender-based Violence in Africa

Since 2010, the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET) has been publishing The Africa Women’s Journal in June and December every year. The Journal is a collection of current issues and statistics on women’s development issues in Africa during the African Women’s Decade (2010-2020) in which we highlight research findings, best practices, case studies and/or stories of African women throughout the Decade.
This being the second year into the Decade, this current issue (July-December 2012) of the African Women’s Journal, will seek to discuss and highlight unique and innovative strategies currently being used in Africa to bring an end to GBV under the theme Women and Men Speaking Out and Acting On Ending Gender Based Violence in Africa.
Gender-based violence (GBV)[1] is a violation of basic human rights! It is a global epidemic that affects the health and economic stability and general wellbeing of both women and men, their families and their communities. Sadly, women, girls, men and boys who are victims of GBV are in many cases unable or afraid to seek legal recourse or even health care and the violence in their lives can prevent them from participating in the social and economic life of their communities. Having noted that GBV affects both women and men, different researches show that GBV affects women disportionately which is why the term Gender Based Violence (GBV) is often used interchangeably with Violence Against Women (VAW).
Over the years, initiatives such as the annual 16 Days of Activism on Violence Against Women, the South-Asian inspired We Can end all violence against women campaign, the UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, the Special Session on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) under the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) and several others, help to raise awareness about GBV, largely highlighting its effects on women and girls. By not only bringing together thousands of activists to speak out and act on ways of ending all forms of GBV, such initiatives have also been strategic in calling for greater accountability and political commitment from governments and increased advocacy from women’s rights advocates.
In Africa, several countries have made progress in enacting and adopting relevant regional and international GBV laws and policies. Significantly, these legal frameworks remain ineffective if they lack an enforcement mechanism to make institutional compliance.
The Journal articles should therefore focus on any of the following sub-themes:-

Prevention of GBV: Share some of the practical initiatives/ measures/strategies that protect women, girls and children from GBV in their homes, communities and countries;
Fighting impunity: How are the existing national, regional and international laws being used (or not) to prosecute GBV perpetrators? Or promote justice?
Assistance to survivors: What are some novel strategies being used to support GBV survivors to rehabilitate and reconstruct their lives?
Working with men to end GBV/VAW

We also encourage you to share with us research findings, best practices and/or case studies on the theme. We also invite individuals to share inspiring stories on how they are ending gender based violence in their own spheres of influence.
Guidelines: For those interested to submit articles, kindly send us an ABSTRACT of your article on or before 28^th September 2012. The abstract should be written in English or French and must not be more than 200 words and should be emailed to library@femnet.or.ke and copy to admin@femnet.or.ke
You will be notified if your abstract has been selected. Only writers with selected abstracts will be asked to submit a full article, which must be written in English or French and should be between 1500 to 2000 words. The article also needs to be well researched with clear referencing using footnotes and providing a bibliography at the end. A guideline for referencing will be provided. We will also require pictures relating to the article (NB: The picture will have to be in Jpeg format) a brief biographical note, contact information with a JPEG mug shot picture of yourself in high resolution. Deadline for submission of FULL ARTICLE will be 30^th October, 2012.
Please note the following key deadlines
v Abstract should be submitted by 28^th September, 2012
v Full Article should be submitted by 30^th October, 2012
We look forward to working with you.
Best regards,

Rachel Kagoiya,
Ag. Head of Communication Programme, FEMNET

[1] The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) defines GBV as “Any act of violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women or men (although the majority of GBV victims worldwide are women), including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”
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