Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association

Thursdays in Black is an international campaign demanding a world without rape and violence in our community.

VUWSA has facilitated the Thursdays in Black campaign since the mid 1990s, in conjunction with NZUSA.

Every Thursday people around the word are invited to wear black as a symbol of strength and courage, representing our solidarity with victims of violence, and demanding a world without rape and violence.

Wearing black on Thursday’s indicates that you are tired of putting up with rape and violence in your community. It demonstrates a desire for a community where we can all walk safely without fear of being beaten up, verbally abused, raped, or being discriminated against due to your sexual orientation, political affiliation, gender or ethnicity.

Thursdays in Black is part of an international movement to demand a world without rape and violence. The campaign has its roots in groups such as the Mothers of the Disappeared in Argentina, Black Sash in South Africa and the Women in Black movements in Bosnia and Israel. These groups include Argentinean mothers who gather every Thursday in silence to protest the loss of loved ones under military dictatorship, women who expressed outrage at the rape-death camps in war torn Bosnia, and women who opposed the Israel occupation of the West Bank and the abuse of the Palestinians.

However, Thursdays in Black is not a campaign confined only to countries at war. In fact, a war against women is being raged all over the world and has continued for centuries. Its weapons include domestic violence, sexual assault, rape, incest, murder, female infanticide, genital mutilation, sexual harassment, discrimination and sex trafficking. In short, sexism.

Thursdays in Black, as a human rights campaign, was started by the World Council of Churches during the 1980s as a peaceful protest against rape and violence – the by productions of war and conflict.

The campaign focuses on ways that individuals can challenges attitudes that cause rape and violence. It reinforces at both a personal and public level that there is something wrong with a world that will allow the human rights of women, men and children to be abused and threatened. It provides an opportunity for people to become part of a worldwide movement which enables the despair and pain and anger about rape and other forms of violence to be transformed into political action.

Before the Women’s Education Coalition Aotearoa (WECA) and the New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA) started to facilitate the campaign in 1995, there was a presence of the Women in Black campaign in New Zealand.

The Tertiary Women’s Focus Group (TWFG) and its predecessor WECA have been involved with the production of resources and the administration of the campaign through the NZUSA Federation Office for over a decade.

Thursdays in Black is a campaign that appeals to a wide range of people. The campaign has ties with the Human Rights Commission, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, and numerous local community groups.

VUWSA sells Thursdays in Black merchandise at our Kelburn Office, and also at Student Representative Council meetings.

For more information on our Thursday in Black campaign contact:

Women’s Rights Officer
womens.officer@vuwsa.org.nz
04 463 6980

For more information on any of these campaigns contact:

Campaigns Officer
campaigns.officer@vuwsa.org.nz
04 463 6980