Burkina Faso's campaign against women violence underway

Ouagadougou- Burkina Faso (PANA) -- Burkina Faso's chapter of the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) on Sunday launched its annual campaign to combat violence against women.
The theme of this year's 16-day campaign, which ends on 10 December, is "domestic violence".
The end of the campaign falls on the anniversary of the Universal Human Rights Declaration.
According to the campaign organisers, a play entitled "Gesbeogo" will be staged to sensitise the populations on the negative impact of domestic violence to which women are regularly subjected.
"Every woman has at one time or another been a victim of gender- related violence ranging from brutal force to the most pernicious forms of moral or psychological violence," the secretary for human rights promotion, Monique Ilboudo, said in a statement Sunday.
She noted that although most women were subjected to the worst forms of violence at home, only a few of them were courageous enough to publicly denounce them.
She attributed this silence to their culture and tradition.
Monique Ilboudu stressed the need to intensify human rights education and the institution of a democratic culture in order to eliminate gender-related violence.
During the annual campaign, WILDAF/Burkina Faso organises several activities from 24 November to 10 December.
These include a mock court session on female genital mutilation to a play cum forum on early and/or forced marriages, and social exclusion resulting from accusations of witchcraft.
In January 2001, it launched an education and sensitisation campaign on early and/or forced marriages in 17 secondary schools in Ouagadougou, the capital as well as in the towns of Kombissiri, Ziniare and Thanghin-Dassouri.
Currently, the NGO is conducting a campaign to inform the population on the rights of women.
Next year, it plans to organise a caravan to campaign against "social exclusion for reasons of witchcraft" and discourage early and/or forced marriages in secondary schools in five other provinces.
WILDAF/Burkina Faso, which was formed on 3 May 1998, has 22 associations and NGOs among its members.