OPINION
On 25th November, I was invited by National Girls Summit to officially launch the 16 Days of activism against Gender based violence as we marked the International day for the elimination of violence against women and girls.
The global orange campaign was started 34 years ago by activists at the center for women’s global leadership at Rutgers University in New Jersey USA with a core objective of syncing violence against girls and women in broader human rights observation.
Besides the 16 days of activism, there has been a number of initiatives advocating, coordinating and influencing policies for prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls among them is a global movement of the National Girls summit.
Amid a cocktail of activities at the national girl’s summit ranging from powerful speeches, music, dance and drama, my mind was drawn to discriminative gaps in the fight against gender based violence.
Many married men are beaten at home while others are suffering from mental health, blood pressure and diabetes, others are languishing in rehabs and prisons as a result of gender based violence.
This happened during networking session when a one Nabbale Viola (not real names) every prominent Chief Executive expressed her terrifying past experiences as a victim of violence against men and boys.
She whispered to me, Robert since you write columns in the newspapers, have you ever noticed that we discriminatively run the 16 Days campaign by excluding the boys and men experiences with GBV.
She confessed that “We give a lot of attention on women experiences, but I am a living testimony of GBV, because my own biological father was murdered in cold blood by my mother”.
In a society where women are the only sole holders of the ‘victim’s card’ to date a gender based murder of my father has never received justice even after 15 years of the fatal incident.
Just a few days ago prominent journalist Canary Mugume through his official X account shared his story of gender-based violence in the back yard of his young family with Phionah Naggirinya aka Sasha Ferguson.
Mugume noted “Am part of the unreported statistics of men who experience domestic violence from partners with uncontrolled anger issues, but because we are men in corporate world, we stay silent, show up every day”.
According to statistics from Mankind Initiative Organisation in United Kingdom state that “One in five Men (21.8% in 2024/25 said are a victim of domestic violence in their life time making it 5.2 million men while 8% of men (425,000) have been victims of partner/ex-partner abuse in 2024 and 2025 (1.2 million men) making it 39% of all victims.
Canary painfully also highlighted the gist of the feminasation against GBV “I restrained myself immensely despite all provocations and assaults, but society will, of course, believe the female gender, I have evidence of myself bleeding after being assaulted”.
Whether Canary Mugume’s viral story is true, half true or not it sparks a conversation demystifying the feminisation of the fight against gender-based violence.
The systematic feminisation culture of GBV is becoming an entrenched culture in our public institutions, development agencies and multilateral bodies like European Union, Common Wealth, African Union and United Nations.
Notably, ‘Most of the annual themes of the 16 days against GBV precipitate the us (women) against them (Men) the epitome of polarising such a noble cause that is meant to protect broader human dignity for all’.
The feminists have successfully and strategically centered the GBV fight based experiences in advocacy, violence response, policy making, financing and implementation around the female gender alone thus disproportionating the male gender.
The feminasation mythology that gender based violence only affects women creates serious concerns that sparks harmful stereotypes, gender disparities and imbalances subjecting boys and men to discrimination.
This sustained myth that women are inherently weak pre-conditions society that they are victims of violence thus entrenching feminisation of the fight against gender based violence.
Because girls and women have been part of statistics of human rights violations it doesn’t necessarily mean that GBV is only limited to female gender.
It is a mistake that leads to ignoring the realities at hand that injustices and violence can happen to any gender.
Society needs to understand that Boys and Men are human beings and potential victims of injustices, social stigma, inequities and inequalities. Men equally feel pain, misery, despair and all emotional and physical faults that come with human nature.
Unfortunately, on many occasions men have been ill tainted as the most insensitive and evil monsters on planet earth. Boys are vulnerably facing double layers of barriers when it comes to opportunities and cultural norms.
Interestingly in the Canary Mugume viral story many men broke out in the X thread how violence against boys and men goes unnoticed and even when reported it’s treated as patriarchy and misogyny.
While there are countless cases of boys and men violently mistreating girls and women the reverse is also true, history has shown many convicted cases of prominent men murdered by their wives.
Many married men are beaten at home while others are suffering from mental health, blood pressure and diabetes, others are languishing in rehabs and prisons as a result of gender based violence.
The growing violence against boys and men is not a hyperbole but a reality before our eyes, any further silence about it is a complicity in violation of the broader human rights.
We don’t discredit nor dismiss the efforts of society towards ending violence against girls and women but the systematic practice of tailoring GBV fight as female issue is not sustainable in the broader human rights approach and observations.
The investments in women and girl child empowerment is not sustainable, if we have deliberately ignored the boys and men, I always ask myself, okay whom will these empowered girls get married to?
Many young boys are being wasted in drugs and alcohol abuses, crime cartels, homosexuality, street children, child soldiers and forced labour before our eyes.
It’s time to demystify one gender sided efforts in the fight against gender-based violence with inter-gender open dialogues, mindset change, empowerment of the boy child through financing, strategies and inclusive policies.
By Robert Kigongo,
The writer is a sustainable development analyst.
