KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – The Bureau of Women’s Affairs has launched a three-month social media campaign, aimed at providing a platform for advocacy and collaboration around the issue of violence against women and girls, and other forms of gender-based violence.

Specifically, the initiative seeks to facilitate constructive conversations on strategies to eliminate violence against women and girls, and will create an inclusive platform to engage a wide cross section of stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

In her address at the launch at the Terra Nova Hotel, in Kingston on Wednesday, Minister with responsibility for Information, Senator Sandrea Falconer, said the campaign will help the Bureau to reach a wide cross section of millennials.

“This ‘no more silence …silence no more’ social media campaign will be bold. It will engage champions to develop and share key messages to raise awareness and build consensus around practical solutions to prevent gender-based and other forms of violence,” Senator Falconer said.

On a day when the world observes International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls, Senator Falconer expressed the hope that the campaign will help to break the silence and will serve as a powerful and useful way to expose the unacceptable levels of violence against women and girls.

“Perhaps too, as a result of this campaign, both traditional and new media will become more aware that glamorising acts of violence, sending messages of fear, panic, despair and hopelessness can cause more harm than good,” she said.

Other objectives of the campaign include: engaging men and boys as advocates and agents of change, to challenge harmful social cultural norms and gender stereotypes; and re-engaging youth, in particular millennials, through social media, to create and disseminate anti-violent and empowering messages to accelerate the progress towards achieving gender equality.

For her part, Chief Technical Director in the Office of the Prime Minister, Alison McLean, said the country has a long way to go “before we can say we are tackling this issue (of gender-based violence).”

“Gender-based violence is a form of gender-based discrimination, it violates the fundamental human rights of anyone who has had the misfortune of being a victim,” she noted.

Meanwhile, Canada’s High Commissioner to Jamaica Sylvain Fabi said he hopes the social media campaign will engage Jamaicans in a constructive conversation on ways to eliminate gender-based violence.

“An important aspect of all efforts to eliminate violence against women and girls is the active engagement of men and boys. Violence, including domestic violence, is not a women’s issue, it’s a human issue and all of society must be involved if violence is to be eliminated,” Fabi added.

Each year, November 25 is observed as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

On this day, groups and persons globally pause to pay tribute to women and girls all over the world who are, or have been victims, particularly of gender-based violence.

The day was observed under the theme: ‘Violence Does Not Discriminate: Unite To End Gender-Based Violence’.