Beginning tomorrow, Jasper is joining communities across the world in a campaign to eliminate violence against women.

This is the fifth year that Jasper has participated in 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, an international human rights campaign that begins on Nov. 25 – the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

There are seven awareness and remembrance days that fall within the 16-day stretch, including World AIDS Day, International Day of Disabled Persons and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women – the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre. The campaign ends on International Human Rights Day, Dec. 10.

The start and finish for the campaign were deliberately chosen “to symbolically link violence against women with human rights and to emphasize that such violence is a violation of human rights,” according to the 16 Days website. 

Ginette Marcoux-Frigon, executive director of the Jasper Adult Learning Council and an organizer of the event, said the campaign is an opportunity to bring local attention to international issues, while also recognizing that Jasper isn’t free of violence against women. 

The theme of this year’s campaign is “from peace in the home to peace in the world.”

As a way of working toward self-peace and helping others achieve it, as well, the Jasper Adult Learning Council is kicking off the campaign with two healing initiatives. 

The first is Operation Beautiful – a movement seeking to curb negative self-talk. The mission of Operation Beautiful, which launched in 2009, is to have women around the world post anonymous notes with positive messages in public places where other women will see them.

The slogan for the movement is “transforming the way you see yourself one Post-It Note at a time.”

The idea is if a woman sees a note that says something like, “You are beautiful just as you are,” she will walk away feeling positive about herself and the stranger who posted the message.

“Watch for the Post-It Notes,” said Marcoux-Frigon, who suggested bathroom mirrors and library books as possible locations for the messages.

The second initiative beginning on Nov. 25 is aimed at breaking the silence of women who have been victims of violence. Marcoux-Frigon said the idea is to have women anonymously submit their stories of violence to the Adult Learning Council. They will then be displayed in the front window of the Provincial Building, located on the corner of Patricia Street and Hazel Avenue, as a way to give a voice to women who have suffered violence.

Other events during the campaign include a community safety audit by the Pathfinders, a self-defence class for women – dubbed as a rape prevention program – and a candlelight vigil in honour of the victims of the Montreal Massacre, a gender-based attack that resulted in the death of 14 women in 1989. At the vigil, held annually on Dec. 6, there will be a collection of non-perishable items for the food bank.

The last scheduled event of the campaign is a film night hosted by HIV West Yellowhead.

On the big screen at Habitat for the Arts will be two flicks, Miss Representation and Tough Guise. Both films look at the way the media and pop culture affect the way that men and women view themselves and how they are treated in society.

Miss Representation is a documentary released last month. It looks at how media’s misrepresentations of women have made it difficult for women to attain leadership positions. 

Tough Guise, on the other hand, is a film from 1999 that explores the way pop culture affects the construction of masculine identities.

The 16 days will be wrapped up with a campaign, called A Call to Men, in which men commit to working toward ending violence against women.

To show their commitment, they are asked to write it down, so it can be displayed alongside the stories of violence at the Provincial Building. They can be signed or submitted anonymously.