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A month of milestones - four weeks of amazing survivor-centered activism
This has been a hard year for the nonprofit sector. As donor governments have pulled back in significant ways, our work – and our world – is being fundamentally reshaped.
This makes it all the more important to call out success. And by any measure, this last month is one we must mark. It has been an extraordinary one for our survivor-centered advocacy and activism –a roll call of achievements, events and involvements like no other.
Shaping policy in France
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It was exactly such survivor-centered activism which took the Brave Movement into the heart of the French Parliament, to launch our joint report with Child Global on the glaring legal loopholes across the European Union which currently allow child abusers to escape justice.
Not only did four French MPs join the launch at the National Assembly in Paris, but coverage driven by Brave France co-founder Mie Kohiyama and Spanish Brave activist Miguel Hurtado took the campaign on EU statute of limitations law onto the pages of Paris Match, Franceinfo, El Pais and many others.
And the news from France got even better, with confirmation only days later that the Government would make good on the commitment of former Prime Minister Francois Bayrou by establishing a national victim and survivor council - a key aim of Brave France and fellow activist groups.
Holding leaders accountable on the global stage
Months earlier, our Brave survivor leaders had asked that we prioritise two events in November - the anniversary of the first ever Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children (VAC), which had been held in Bogota a year earlier, and the first ever G20 Leaders’ Summit in Africa, taking place in Johannesburg. We wanted to make sure we used both as an opportunity to hold leaders accountable for the pledges they made in Colombia to end VAC.
In the space of a fortnight, we did just that. Brave joined with organisers WHO, UNICEF and the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children on November 10th at a global event to mark the first anniversary of the conference. Brave survivor activist Denise Buchanan joined youth and CSO forum speakers in a frank and penetrative discussion on what had been achieved since the past year- and how much governments still have to do to make good on their commitments to end violence against children.
Spotlighting the opportunity in the world’s Third Richest Nation
And then there was the launch of our own Brave campaign, the Third Richest Nation, or 3RN.
Working with creative partners, Cummins&Partners NYC, we aimed to drive home a clear message to G20 leaders and the 100+ governments gathered in Colombia a year ago: ending violence against children isn’t just the right thing to do - it’s also the smart thing to do, unlocking enormous economic opportunity.
According to widely-cited research, such violence costs the world $7 trillion a year - an amount that is more than the GDP of every country on earth bar the USA and China. So we created a thriving country with an economy that size. Our President - her face an AI-composite of survivor volunteers - addressed the nation to explain the basis of their wealth: keeping children safe. Our 3RN news bulletins broke the news and we even took the campaign across the UK and to London’s Outernet - the most visited cultural attraction in the UK’s capital.
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The impact was everything we hoped for. 3RN became Campaign Magazine’s Ad of the Day - a podium position generally the reserve of advertising giants and their multinational customers - and garnered praise and coverage across the sector and in more than 860 news outlets globally.
But even more powerful was how it moved survivors, supporters and allies, including 50 national “ambassadors,” who all contributed to an organic social media explosion - captured by the Brave Movement’s #BeBrave Social Wall.
Championing child safety at the G20 Social Summit in South Africa
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We took 3RN to the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, where Brave activists were at the heart of the G20 Social Summit – the “flagship platform for integrating civil society voices into the G20 decision-making process.” Brave advocates were on the ground, asking thought-provoking questions about how to make the third richest nation a reality, inviting delegates to become honorary citizens, and sharing ways to hold leaders accountable for protecting children.
Alongside Safe Online, ChildFund International, Mtoto News, Plan International, and World Vision International, the Brave Movement launched the Safe Digital Futures - Invest in Children coalition urging the G20 to invest in supporting child online safety. Children, youth, parents, international government representatives, civil society, global institutions, and survivors of technology-facilitated sexual abuse met for a high-level roundtable to align on investment priorities and scale solutions that work to protect children online.
Two amazing days culminated with children presenting the South African President with the G20 Social Summit declaration, the first to include an explicit section on digital safety, and aligned closely with the Brave Movement’s call to action.
The G7 listen to survivors in Canada
But we still weren’t done with November. A few days later, Mie Kohiyama and fellow Brave co-founder Rosalia Rivera travelled to the G7 Interior and Security Ministers’ Meeting in Canada – to address Ministers on the critical importance of creating National Survivor Councils – thereby becoming the first survivors to ever address this gathering.
The Ministers’ communique made clear that engagement with survivors must be at the heart of their work to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
The momentum continues to accelerate
There is more. Brave co-founder Jane Aguti took the campaign to end clergy abuse to Rome to a meeting with the Pope himself. Fellow co-founder Matthew MacVarish, the first ever survivor to be granted observer status on the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Convention, took his message - that the Council must officially recognise the term “survivors” - to its meeting in Moldova.
Survivor recognition. Online safety. An end to all child sexual violence. South Africa, Canada, France, UK, Spain and so many other places. Our amazing survivor activists have carried the Brave Movement’s key objectives across the globe in this one month, coming face to face with the world’s leaders. And achieved amazing results.
My pride in their leadership, and in the work of all the allies who support them every day is unbound. It’s not been an easy year. But these last four weeks have shown, yet again and perhaps as never before that together, we are Brave.
