On Friday, 21 November 2025, South African women are called to silence the nation ahead of the G20 Summit—to demand an end to gender-based violence and femicide in a country where a woman is murdered every 2.5 hours.  

Registered in South Africa but working with partners across the world, SVRI will join this collective action by refraining from work and spending. At SVRI, we believe it is critical to support this movement and other global feminist movements working to end GBV.

The power of strong national women’s rights and feminist movements is well evidenced. A cross-national study of 70 countries, across 6 continents and 4 decades, found that feminist movements are the strongest and most consistent predictor of government action to address violence against women.

In South Africa, the Weave Collective has documented how women’s mobilisation has influenced the GBV policy context over many decades. From the Women’s March for Freedom in the 1960’s to the 2018 #TotalShutdown movement and the Women’s G20 Shutdown, South African feminist activists have consistently driven change in legislation, policy and programmes.

Yet, despite years of activism and the government declaring gender-based violence as a national priority, levels of violence remain unacceptably high. Five years in, the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide (NSP GBVF) continues to be aspirational, with implementation mechanisms underfunded and commitments largely unfulfilled.

We call on the South African government to turn its commitments into concrete action:

• Fully fund and implement the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, with transparent reporting and accountability at all levels.
• Strengthen the justice and protection systemfrom policing to court procedures so that survivors are believed, supported, and able to access justice swiftly and safely.
• Invest in innovation and evidence-based prevention driven by strong research–practice partnerships to create sustainable, effective solutions to end violence and to implement what we know works.

We shut down not to be still but to make our absence felt and to insist that our call for a safer world for all women and all children, in South Africa and everywhere, is met with action, urgency, and political will. We stand in black in mourning and resistance, for all the women silenced at the hands of gender-based violence.

Visit Women for Change to learn all the ways you can participate in joining this movement! See you, sis!