Proclaiming the University of Ottawa a Rape-Free Zone

Proclamation Establishing the University of Ottawa as a Rape Free Zone and Formally Welcoming V-Day, a Global Movement to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls to the University of Ottawa, February 12th, 13th, 14th 2003.

WHEREAS: V-Day is a global movement to stop violence against women and girls for which annual theatrical and artistic events are created and produced around the world to raise money and transform consciousness generating a broader attention for the fight to stop worldwide violence against women and girls; and

WHEREAS: Violence against women does not distinguish between class, race, age or locality. Women are beaten in thatched huts, back alleys, plush hotels suites, college dorms, high-rise apartments and trailer parks. Women are sold into sexual slavery, burned with acids and mutilated as little girls, although the particular form of violence may vary from culture to culture, as a result women spend most of their lives recovering from, resisting or surviving violence rather than creating and thriving; and

WHEREAS: The money raised through V-Day and on its behalf, is directly donated to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to end rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery ; and campaign monies raised from the V-Day 2004 production of The Vagina Monologues at the University of Ottawa will be donated to the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre and the Minwaashin Healing Lodge; and

WHEREAS: This initiative is the first of many aimed at the collective goal of ending sexual violence and creating a RAPE FREE ZONE, a proclamation of our condemnation of sexual victimization and our desire to become a rape free community; and now therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the students, staff and faculty of the University of Ottawa declare the University a RAPE FREE ZONE, February 12th, 13th, 14th 2003.