24 Hour Domestic Violence Help-line

What Is It?

The White Ribbon Campaign runs from 25^th November to 10^th December and aims to promote the elimination of violence towards women and children across the world.

Why November 25^th?

On the night of November 25^th 1960 three sisters – Patria, Maria Teresa and Minerva Mirabel, political activists in the Dominican Republic – were killed alongside their driver in a suspicious car crash as they returned from visiting their detained husbands at the remote prison in Puerto Plata.  The sisters and their husbands were all active political opponents of the dictator Rafael Leonidas.  Las Mariposas (the butterflies) as they became known had been imprisoned and tortured on several occasions. Twenty years later, in 1981, the First Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encounter took place in Bogota and it was decided to commemorate the murder of the Mirabel sisters as International Day Against Violence Towards Women.

Why White Ribbons?

The first White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) was launched in Canada in 1991 after the brutal mass shooting of 14 female students at the University of Montreal.  A group of Canadian men were outraged by the crime and started the campaign calling on fellow men to neither commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women.  In 1996 in South Africa the National Network on Violence Against Women launched their own WRC and many of the country’s women’s groups quickly adopted the white ribbon as a symbol in their nationwide struggle against the high levels of violence against women.

Each year, men and boys are urged to wear a ribbon including one on their coat so the ribbon will be visible while they’re outdoors’ for one or two weeks, starting on November 25^th.

Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum and other local organisations are promoting the wearing of white ribbons and general domestic violence awareness over the period 25th November - 10th December each year.  This combines the campaigning forces of the White Ribbon Campaign and the 'sixteen days of activism'.

Each year many different events are arranged to ensure that domestic violence is given a high profile in Nottinghamshire.  Please see web links to the right of this page for further information.

If you want your organisation to be involved in arranging an event in Nottinghamshire then please contact NDVF.