Amnesty International Street Harassment Campaign

One of the most thrilling, challenging and stimulating duties I performed during my internship at the well-known NGO was preparing a pitch on a Street Harassment Campaign for the Ministry of Women’s Rights, Child Development and Family Welfare.
Street harassment can be described as the sexual harassment of women and girls in public and semi-public places, and includes such behavior as whistling, car horn honking, staring, commenting, following, touching and indecent exposure. It occurs in Mauritius at all times of the day in all types of places, including the street, market, commercial centers, bus, bus station, beach, etc. Women and girls of all ages, ethnicities and communities can be the targets of street harassment.
The consequences of street harassment are wide-ranging. Many women feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, guilty, ashamed and annoyed. Harassment can also cause women to feel afraid, as they may worry that the behavior could escalate to rape or assault. In their efforts to avoid harassment, many women will forgo their basic rights to mobility, education, work and leisure. They may give up their independence, not taking the bus or waiting to be escorted by a man, in order to ensure their security. At times, women and girls are told they asked for the abusive behavior due to what they were wearing or how they were behaving; this attitude of putting all or partial responsibility for the harassment on the target is never acceptable and is not only harmful to the individual, who is being victimized for a second time, but to all women.
Amnesty International is attempting to raise awareness about street harassment and the harm it causes during this campaign and therefore, based on past researches on the issue, I prepared a PR media plan with the help of two friends (one of which was also an intern at AIMS).
Our overall goal is to eliminate street harassment and the lack of respect of women and girls in public in Mauritius and to increase public awareness and discussion of the implication, frequency and harms of street harassment and our tactics include advertisements on billboards, in magazines, radio talk shows, forums etc…
We really hope that we will receive the funds to make this project become reality so that we can change the attitude of so many people and educate them about this issue.

Céline