At the end of every year, I like to look back, document and reflect on everything that has transpired in the global movement to end street harassment and assault. Yesterday I wrote about 10 of Stop Street Harassment’s achievements. Today, I’m posting a five-part series about the highlights of ALL activism that happened this year (PDF format). WHAT A YEAR!

Post 1: New anti-street harassment campaigns, new initiatives within existing campaigns, and protests.

Post 2: Creative anti-street harassment initiatives.

Post 3: Government initiatives/collaborations

Post 4 (this one): New studies, reports, and significant news articles.

Post 5: Stories from 20 people who stood up to street harassers this year.

Studies & Reports/Thesis:

1. Canada/USA/Global: Women in Cities International partnered with UN Habitat, and Plan International – Because I am a Girl to write the report Adolescent Girls Creating Safer Cities: Harnessing the Potential of Communication for Development.

2. Canada: Women in Cities International also released the report Tackling Gender Exclusion: Experiences from the Gender Inclusive Cities Programme.

3. Croatia: Hollaback! Croatia informally surveyed 500 people (mostly women) online about street harassment in 2012. They found that 99 percent of women experienced some form of street harassment in their lifetime, and 50 percent experienced it by age 18.

4. India: About 92 percent of 5,000 women working in sectors like information technology, hospitality, civil aviation and call centers reported feeling unsafe while travelling to their homes after sunset, according to a nationwide survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India’s Social Development Foundation. The women live in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Dehra Dun.

5. India: When 1000 women in Mumbai were surveyed, 80 percent said they had been street harassed. “The maximum cases of verbal and physical harassment take place in crowded areas such as trains and railway platforms,” said Shurbhi Sharma, member of We The People Foundation, which conducted the survey recently.

6. Poland: Hollaback! Poland informally surveyed 818 people and found that 85% of female respondents had experienced street harassment in public spaces in Poland, as had 44% of men.

7. Turkey: Hollaback! Istanbul informally surveyed 141 college students about their experiences with street harassment. They found that 93 percent had been street harassed and 69 percent experience street harassment at least on a monthly basis.

8. UK: The Ending Violence Against Women Coalition released two studies about street harassment in London. One study found that 43 percent of women had been harassed during the previous year and the second one honed in on harassment that takes place on public transportation.

9. UK: Hollaback! Gwynedd, Wales, partnered with two student unions and surveyed 400 students about their experiences with street harassment.

10. UK: Jennifer Harrison wrote her graduate thesis on street harassment issues: “Gender segregation on public transport in South Asia: A critical evaluation of approaches for addressing harassment against women.”

11. USA: Ninety-five people responded to the online survey following a Bay Citizen story about unwanted sexual behavior on Muni, BART and AC Transit. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they had experienced unwanted sexual behavior on public transit. Only 6 percent reported it.

12. USA: Patrick McNeil conducted research as part of his master’s thesis at The George Washington University about the street harassment of gay and bisexual men. He surveyed 331 men around the world, and about 90 percent said they are sometimes, often, or always harassed or made to feel unwelcome in public spaces because of their perceived sexual orientation – a figure that is far too high.

13. USA: In partnership with Hollaback!, researchers from the Worker Institute at Cornell asked 110 New York City-based social service providers whether or not they receive reports of street harassment, and if so, how they respond to those reports. They found that more than 86 percent of respondents had received reports of street harassment from a client, constituent or consumer.

14. USA: Laurel Long wrote her college thesis on street harassment at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.

Select Important Articles (in no particular order):

{Unwinona}, “I debated whether or not to share this story.“

LAist, “Women Share Their Stories Of Sexual Harassment (And Worse) On Public Transportation”

The Guardian, “Wolf-whistling is just the start – harassment is not harmless”

CNN, “Hey baby! Women speak out against street harassment”

Sparkwood & 21, “The Story of My Sexual Assault on Muni in San Francisco”

The Bay Citizen, “Why Transit Riders Don’t Report Unwanted Sexual Behavior“

Sparkle All Day, “The Punch Heard Round The World”

The Guardian, “How to stop sexual harassment on public transportation“

International Business & Law, “Brussels’ Offensive-Language Fines Highlight Widespread Sexual Harassment“

The Voice of Russia, “Sexual harassment in Russia“

The Jerusalem Post, “Egyptian women battle harassment on the streets“

The F Word Blog, “Spanish feminist subjected to harassment campaign”

Le Nouvel Observateur, “Harcèlement de rue : les femmes racontent le machisme“

The Atlantic, “Violent Protests in India Over Rape Case”

Global Press Institute, “Women Break Silence About Sexual Harassment on Nepali Buses“

USA Today, “Arab women cry for end to harassment“

Eliminating the Impossible, “Street Harassment 102: When You’re Blind and a Woman“

Fair Observer, “Natasha Smith: Is This Egypt?”

Week Woman, “My Hijab, My Body – A Muslim Feminist on Street Harassment in Argentina“

Heeb Magazine, “A Woman’s Guide to Hasidic Street Harassment”

Open Democracy, “Street sexual harassment: breaking the silence in Yemen”

The Daily Star Lebanon, “Public masturbation: Where sexual harassment meets disorder”

Libya Herald, “Sexual harassment of Libyan women”

Welcome to Kosovo 2.0, “Kosovo’s Streets: A woman’s perspective“

IRIN, “NEPAL: Women demand end to sexual harassment“

High on Cliches, “Wie verhalte ich mich möglichst nicht wie ein Arsch?“

Tunisia Live article about street harassment.

Time, “Ladies First: Czech Railways Rolls Out Female-Priority Compartments“

Jeddah Mind Trick (Saudi Arabia), “Walking While Covered”

Empty Nest Expat, “Breaking the Silence on Street Harassment in Istanbul“

Latin America, “Argentina: Women suffer from sexual harassment on the street, a social problem”

Clutch Magazine, “Hey There Pretty Lady: How Street Harassment Affected My Body Image and How I Overcame It”

The March 2012 issue of Cosmo magazine includes advice for dealing with gropers. Read an extended version of SSH founder Holly Kearl’s advice on the SSH blog.

Crates and Ribbons, “The Kissing Sailor, or “The Selective Blindness of Rape Culture”

At the end of every year, I like to look back, document and reflect on everything that has transpired in the global movement to end street harassment and assault. Yesterday I wrote about 10 of Stop Street Harassment’s achievements. Today, I’m posting a five-part series about the highlights of ALL activism that happened this year (PDF format). WHAT A YEAR!

Post 1: New anti-street harassment campaigns, new initiatives within existing campaigns, and protests.

Post 2: Creative anti-street harassment initiatives.

Post 3 (this one): Government initiatives/collaborations

Post 4: New studies, reports, and significant news articles.

Post 5: Stories from 25 people who stood up to street harassers this year.

1. Global: In May, municipal authorities from cities around the world met in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss how to make cities safer and more sustainable, particularly for women and children. This was the annual meeting of the five-year Safe Cities Global Programme, launched in 2010 by UN Women. It’s taking innovative approaches to making public spaces safer in five pilot cities: Cairo in Egypt; New Delhi in India; Quito in Ecuador; Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea and Kigali in Rwanda. Studies conducted in 2011 by UN Women in these five cities showed that many women and girls experience sexual harassment or violence in public spaces on a daily basis.

2. Global: Various Hollaback! leaders met and worked with government officials to address street harassment, including Hollaback! Gwynedd, Wales, Hollaback! Edinburgh, Hollaback! Brussels, AtreveteDF (Mexico City), Hollaback! Philly, and Hollaback! New York. (Read their State of the Streets 2012 report for more information.)

3. Belgium: Over the summer, college student Sofie Peeters’ documentary about street harassment went viral, launching an international discussion about the topic and leading the government of Brussels to pass legislation addressing it.

4. Bolivia: Because of many women involved in politics in Bolivia report harassment at public events and in public spaces, Bolivia’s Legislative Assembly approved the Law against Harassment and Political Violence against Women. UN Women: “The new law provides a two to five year prison sentence for anyone who pressurizes, persecutes, harasses or threatens an elected woman or those exercising public functions. The penalty for practicing physical, psychological or sexual aggression is three to eight years in prison.”

5. Egypt: In a country where very few street harassers are punished through the court system, many people celebrated with a Cairo court sentenced a man to a two-year prison term as well as a LE2,000 ($330) fine for grabbing a young woman’s bottom while she was waiting for a cab.”

6. Europe: Twenty-five members of the Council of Europe have now signed the “Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence,” which was written in April 2011. (See which countries have already signed it.)

Countries that sign the Convention agree to pass legislation or criminalize or impose sanctions against different types of gender violence, including domestic violence, honor killings, stalking, and sexual harassment. Here’s the exact language about sexual harassment, which presumably includes street harassment since it does not say the sexual harassment must occur in workplaces or schools:

“Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that any form of unwanted verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, in particular when creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment, is subject to criminal or other legal sanction.”

In order to enter into force, it needs 10 ratifications and it does not yet have them.

7. India: In Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut town, the police started posting photos of street harassers as a way to shame them and deter future harassment incidents.

8. India: In Madhya Pradesh, the Chief Minister announced in November that anyone found guilty of street harassment would be denied a passport and driver’s license.

9. India: In Guwahati, the police force introduced a special all-women division in November called Virangana to focus on street harassment and assault. The 100 women were specially trained and carry swords.

10. India: In November, India’s Supreme Court acknowledged that sexual harassment is a rampant problem, especially on the streets and on public transportation, and one that negatively impacts the lives of the harassed persons. So the Supreme Court issued a country-wide standard for addressing the problem.

11. Russia: This year the feminist group RosNahal tackled street harassment. They made a video about it and engaged in lobbying and activism that has led the Russian government to take notice. “Russia’s ruling party has decided that Russia needs a separate article prosecuting sexual harassment in its administrative code while the logistics for enforcing and proving such offences are still up in the discussion. Russia’s ruling party has suggested a steep fine of up to 50,000 rub which is about 1,000£ to punish any would-be sexual harassers.”

12. Saudi Arabia: The Shura Council in Saudi Arabia finalized the draft of an anti-sexual harassment.

13. UK: The Ending Violence Against Women Coalition successfully pressured several of the candidates who ran for mayor of London in May to put street harassment on their agenda, but sadly, none of those candidates were elected.

14. USA: After unsuccessfully trying to meet with the transit authority in Washington, DC, to discuss sexual harassment on their system, I joined a small group of people and testified about the problem before the Washington, DC City Council in February (the team was led by Collective Action for Safe Spaces). Ward 4 City Council Member Muriel Bowser was disturbed by the stories and statistics and told the transportation authority to do something! Two weeks later, they had formed a taskforce and got to work changing how they track and respond to harassment complaints, creating an online reporting form, and launching a poster campaign.

15. USA: At the urging of Collective Action for Safe Spaces and Stop Street Harassment, in Washington, DC, Ward 4 City Council Member Muriel Bowser introduced legislation that will make it easier to prosecute people who expose themselves in public (e.g. public masturbators and flashers). It is still pending.

16. USA: New York is considering a bill that would make harsher punishments for engaging in unwanted sexual touching in public spaces.

As 2012 comes to a close, I am proud of everything that Stop Street Harassment (SSH) achieved this year, especially because, as many SSH blog readers may know, I have a full-time job and do my street harassment activism during my lunch breaks, in the evenings, on the weekends, and over my vacation days.

Not only am I proud, I am also extremely grateful. I am grateful for the support of my partner, my parents, my day job co-workers, my friends and family, all of my activist allies, everyone who organized action for Meet Us on the  Street 2012, my new social media volunteers, and my new board members who each helped make the following 10 achievements possible.  So, a big THANK YOU to them, and a special thank you to the organization Collective Action for Safe Spaces, my co-collaborator for several projects.

1. New Metro Campaign: After unsuccessfully trying to meet with the transit authority in Washington, DC, to discuss sexual harassment on their system, I joined a small group of people and testified about the problem before the Washington, DC City Council in February (we were organized by Collective Action for Safe Spaces). Then I wrote articles and gave media interviews about harassment on the Metro. The result? Helping successfully pressure the DC transportation authority to address sexual harassment in several ways, including by changing how they track and respond to harassment complaints, creating an online reporting form, and launching a poster campaign over the summer.

2. Anti-Street Harassment Week: Organized more than 100 groups in over 20 countries and tens of thousands of people to speak out during Meet Us on the Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week in March. The United Nations recognized the week on their calendar! Read the wrap-up report.

3. Petition Victory: Created and led the Change.org petition campaign that forced a New Jersey Mall to take down an offensive, pro-harassment construction sign.  It also resulted in tons of media coverage, especially after the Associated Press ran a story about the victory, bringing more public attention to the issue.

4. Organized Local Events: Organized three events about street harassment internationally and locally, including an art exhibit in March that included art from countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Yemen (co-organized with the Deaf Abused Women’s Network) as well as cities in the USA; another March event about harassment in Egypt, Iran, and the USA (co-organized with the YWCA-NCA); and an event in June about street harassment in Afghanistan and the USA (co-organized with Collective Action for Safe Spaces).

5. Egypt: Used vacation days from work and traveled to Cairo, Egypt, and attended the weekly meeting of the anti-harassment group HarassMap, perused an art exhibit about street harassment, and attended/spoke at an open mic event about sexual violence, including street harassment. I wrote about the art exhibit/open mic event for the Women’s Media Center.

6. South Dakota: Used vacation days again and traveled to Pine Ridge Reservation and Rapid City in South  Dakota to conduct the first-ever focus groups about street harassment with Native Americans. The findings garnered media attention, including an Associated Press article and a South Dakota Public Broadcasting segment. I also wrote about the focus groups for the Women’s Media Center.

7. Talks: Gave 21 talks and presentations about street harassment on campuses, in high schools and to community groups (campuses included Stanford, UC Berkeley, Dickinson College, Jefferson Community College, George Mason University, Shenandoah University, and Portland State University), and spoke about street harassment at national conferences, including the National Organization for Women and the National Sexual Assault Conference.

8. Rallies: Spoke at or tabled at women’s rights rallies and events, including the We Are Woman Rally and Slutwalk DC. Also was part of a team organized by Collective Action for Safe Spaces that performed a skit about sexual harassment on the Washington, DC Metro one Sunday afternoon in August.

9. Interviews: Gave nearly 50 media interviews, including for CNN.com, USA Today, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Jerusalem Post, ABC News, Cosmo Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Jezebel, and also gave interviews for more than a dozen college students who wrote papers and dissertations on street harassment.

10. Nonprofit, Paperback, & Volunteers: Gained 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, formed a board of directors, and recruited social media volunteers. Also, bought the paperback rights to my book Stop Street Harassment: Making Public Places Safe and Welcoming for Women and published it in paperback in April for the affordable price of $15! (Compared with $45 in hardcover.)

Everything SSH did in 2012 happened without donations or grants (and was nearly all financed by my paycheck from my day job or by my speaking honorariums), but you can help SSH achieve even more in 2013 by donating today. Donations are tax deductible and an anonymous donor will match all donations made in December. See my 2013 plans for SSH if I raise enough money.

A final note: There are four more days in 2012, come back each day to read success stories and learn about the major accomplishments and milestones that occurred worldwide to stop street harassment this year.