End rape as a weapon of war.
Sexual violence as a weapon of war, submission and terror is an ignominy that is still too often ignored and deliberately concealed. In addition to the violence of rape, which is mostly committed against women, there is also the terror, shame and sometimes, the rejection or abandonment, in particular of children born of rape. Our goal with this entry is to put the victims “survivors” at the heart of our initiatives. With our hashtag #StandSpeakRiseUp, our slogan “Nothing about us without us” and the entry on “Shorty Social Good Awards” we want to expose the reality of these crimes and their consequences. Thanks to our initiatives during the conference and on social media, we also ambitioned to overcome emotional reactions, to reflect on how to prevent the multiplication of these rapes, to better support the victims and to give them justice and reparation.
Main goals of the Stand Speak Rise Up! initiative:
- Inclusion of the victims of rape: “Nothing about us without us” ( world’s first conference where survivors have been in the center and where the debate has been shaped around their experiences )
- Create a platform where survivors of sexual violence have a voice.
- Deconstruction of the root causes of sexual violence
- Fundraising for our initiatives
- Sign conventions between the “Red-Cross”, “Fondation Engie”, “We Are NOT Weapons of War” and the “Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation” to financially support projects aimed at helping survivors of sexual violence.
In 2016, Doctor Denis Mukwege met HRH The Grand Duchess in Luxembourg. He sought help to support two projects of his foundation to create a global fund for the reparation of victims of war rape and to set up an international solidarity network to bring together survivors of sexual violence.
In 2018, HRH The Grand Duchess wanted to go further. With Dr. Denis Mukwege and lawyer Céline Bardet, founder of the NGO We Are NOT Weapons of War, she came up with the idea of the Stand Speak Rise Up! forum, which took place on 26 and 27 March 2019 in Luxembourg.
The core aspect of Stand Speak Rise Up! is to focus on the survivors of sexual violence and to put them in the center of our initiatives during the conference, on social media and beyond. Our goal is to inspire action:
"Nothing about us without us!"
The social media campaign has been launched in February 2019. From that day on, supporters of the initiative could post a selfie or picture with one of 3 Stand Speak Rise Up messages to demonstrate their will to end rape as a weapon of war. The campaign is still active now. From this moment on, the hashtag #StandSpeakRiseUp has widely been used on multiple platforms.
In March 2019, the conference in Luxembourg brought together more than 50 survivors, three Nobel Peace Prize winners (Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nadia Murad, and Muhammad Yunus) and many politicians, lawyers, researchers, NGO representatives and renowned personalities. This first forum was an opportunity to launch the widely shared public appeal of The Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, to denounce rape as a weapon of war, to prevent its proliferation and to support the victims in their reconstruction and need for justice.
During the conference, we uncovered the stories of 50 survivors of sexual violence whose courage and dignity left us speechless.
The encounter with the survivors and the emotions in their testimonies encouraged people to join the movement and to express their solidarity and support for the victims.
The conference has been live streamed on our web platform standspeakriseup.lu and on YouTube. Experiences of the conference have been updated regularly on our social media platforms. Our social media content has been distributed on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. Several hundred pieces of content have been created during the conference and can be used to prepare the coming events.
A special community management planning has been established and shared with all the content creators, photographers, and videographers. The planning has been respected by all the actors and post-production has been achieved within minutes.
For the first time in history a conference with more than 50 survivors of sexual violence has been launched by HRH The Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. The forum has been a huge success and exceeded our expectations.
A total of over 3.3 million impressions across all social media channels during the campaign.
Twitter: 2.775.000
Facebook: 313.000
Instagram: 229.000
30k + shares, retweets, likes
Facebook Corner
Selfies with printed messages
Good engagement rate on top posts (8 %)
Several millions of impressions on other channels and an increased visibility on social media thanks to influencers like the Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation
Shares from the national and worldwide press like the New York Times, Euronews, RTL, Delano, Essentiel, etc.
Renowned personalities and 3 Nobel Peace Prize winners support the initiative and have participated in the conference.
(Dr. Denis Mukwege, Nadia Murad and Muhammad Yunus)
1300 participants
Workshops and experiences of participants together with survivors of sexual violence
Speakers from Governments, Think Tanks, United Nations, etc.
Signature of the appeal of HRH the Grand-Duchess of Luxembourg to end rape as a weapon of war.
3 conventions signed with the “Red Cross”, “Fondation Engie” and the NGO “We Are NOT Weapons of War”
Creation of a white paper including the highlights of the #StandSpeakRiseUp conference as well as emerging solutions to end rape as a weapon of war.
Creation of an association to continue the fight against sexual violence
