The Tribune

V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls, announced the escalation of its global campaign One Billion Rising with the launch of OneBillionRising.org, a website to support the rapidly growing campaign activity including video testimonies, event planning and creative actions.

One Billion Rising began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than one billion women and girls. On 14 February 2013, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities and women and men across the world will come together to express their outrage, strike, dance, and rise in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.

With activists in 161 countries already signed on, the website will serve as a hub for the global day of action planned for 14 February 2013. The site launches with a short film by Eve Ensler and South African filmmaker Tony Stroebel shot in nine countries, and the start of an ongoing video series entitled “I Am Rising….” The series coincides with a weeklong print and online video series featuring an exclusive commentary piece by Eve Ensler and video testimony from British MP Stella Creasy, as well as Rosario Dawson, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Fatou Bensouda, Ai-jen Poo, Jane Mukuninwa, Ruby Wax, and Olympian Nicola Adams, with the aim of inspiring women and men around the world to join One Billion Rising .

Eve Ensler, Award-winning playwright, activist, and V-Day founder, will embark on a world tour, with stops in Peru, Mexico, India, China, Philippines, Britain, France, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), kicking off today in New York City, and ending on 14 February 2013, in Congo, with a One Billion Rising event that will be broadcast around the world.

“When we started V-Day 14 years ago, we had the outrageous idea that we could end violence against women,” said Ensler. “One Billion Rising is an appreciation, amplification and an escalation. When One Billion bodies rise and dance on 14 February 2013, we will join in solidarity, purpose and energy and shake the world into a new consciousness. Dancing insists we take up space. It has no set direction but we go there together. It’s dangerous, joyous, sexual, holy, disruptive. It breaks the rules. It can happen anywhere at anytime with anyone and everyone. It’s free. No corporation can control it. It joins us and pushes us to go further. It’s contagious and it spreads quickly. It’s of the body. It’s transcendent.”

Since the launch of the campaign in February 2012, One Billion Rising has gained incredible momentum, bringing on thousands of supporters across 161 countries and gaining the support of politicians, artists, writers, celebrities, thinkers, activists, non-profits, unions and corporations around the world. To date:

The campaign has reached millions of activists; women and men in 161 countries signed up and participating in One Billion Rising, from Afghanistan to Australia, South Africa to Great Britain, Egypt to Cuba.

Thousands of organizations including Amnesty International USA, Equality Now, Global Fund for Women, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Sonke Gender Justice, and Women Thrive Worldwide will activate their networks for One Billion Rising. Major unions in the United States are supporting the campaign, including the AFL-CIO, Working America, National Domestic Worker Alliance, and the United Steelworkers.

Members of European Parliament who performed “The Vagina Monologues” in March as a cross-party call to action are organising events across Europe including conferences and workshops hosted by MEP’s to support the campaign.

France’s Women’s Rights Minister Minister Najat Vallaud Belkacem has signed on to support the campaign on the heels of British MP Stella Creasy’s One Billion Rising workshop in UK Parliament, discussing ways to harness the power of the campaign and further legislation for women’s rights.