Week Without Violence 2025 Statement

Rising Together for Peace: Ending Violence Across Every Border

“Peace is not something we inherit. It is something we build together – choice by choice, voice by voice, across every border.”

This week, 20-24 October 2025, the World YWCA and YWCA Canada are partnering together, joining dozens of countries in global solidarity in marking Week Without Violence, a decades-long campaign focused on ending all violence, particularly violence against women and girls. Each year, the global YWCA movement unites to demand a world where safety, dignity, and justice are not privileges for some but rights for all.

Right now, more than 123 million people are displaced by conflict and persecution. In Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and countless other crisis zones, the truth remains: women and children do not start wars, yet they often suffer the worst consequences.

These are not distant tragedies. Violence reverberates across borders and generations, tearing communities apart and eroding safety everywhere. Poverty, hunger, displacement and fear follow in its wake. In Canada, a woman or girl is killed every two days by gender-based violence. Indigenous women face rates of violence nearly double those of non-Indigenous women. This crisis is real, relentless, and unacceptable. In Canada, and across every continent.

Our struggles are deeply interconnected, and so is our strength. That’s why the theme of this year’s Week Without Violence of rising for peace demands urgent collective action. This year’s theme is particularly significant as we look back 30 years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration, looking at what setbacks and progress were gained in cementing the equity and safety of women and girls worldwide. 

“Even in the face of unimaginable challenges, we see people choosing courage and care every single day,” says Aline Nizigama, National CEO of YWCA Canada. “That is what gives me hope – knowing that when we come together, we have the power to build a future where safety and dignity are not exceptions, but realities for everyone.”

YWCA Canada, the World YWCA, and YWCA associations globally share a bold vision: a world where everyone can live free from violence, fear, and oppression. Whether it’s providing life-saving shelter for survivors in Canada, empowering youth leadership in Ethiopia, or delivering humanitarian relief and amplifying women’s voices in conflict zones like Gaza, YWCAs rise to the challenge every day. These concrete actions show what is possible when local efforts are connected to a global movement.

“It can be easy to feel discouraged when we see so much harm and injustice around us,” says Casey Harden, General Secretary of World YWCA. “But change is possible. We see it when survivors reclaim their power, when people, countries, and communities mobilize to protect one another, and when movements refuse to back down from the belief that a better world is possible.”

We invite you to do something about it. Speak out against injustice. Hold leaders accountable. Push for survivor-centered national action plans on gender-based violence that prioritize prevention, support, and equity. Take action in your community. Center the voices of those most impacted in every solution.

This Week Without Violence, we invite you to rise for peace with us. When we rise together, we rise stronger! 

Peace cannot wait, and neither can we.