screenshot of video silence hurts

Justice4Her video wins silver award

Launched in August 2018, the short film ‘Silence Hurts‘ has won the Silver Prize for Best Video at the 8th STDecaux Public Service Awards of th JCDecaux. The video, produced by our Justice4her-team in China and co-funded by the EU, has been viewed more than 500,000 times, and its hashtag #更好的women# has reached over four million views on Chinese social media channels. The film raises awareness of gender-based violence.

The award is a joint venture between JCDecaux Shanghai Advertising Company and Shanghai Metro Shentong Group Ltd. The video features a couple arguing in the street. The video is filmed from the perspective of a stranger passing by, inviting the viewer to ask, “Do I intervene? Do I help?” By following the argument in an outsider’s role, the audience is invited to reflect on intimate partner violence and to understand how vital it is to help those affected.

According to research by the China Women’s Federation, 24.7 percent of Chinese married women have suffered violence in their marriage. To tackle this problem, RNW Media set up Justice4her in May 2016, in cooperation with two Chinese legal and civil society organisations.

Justice4Her adopts a cross-sector approach to empower Chinese women migrant workers to eliminate gender-based violence. In the seven months since its launch in China, the project has attracted more than 10 million social media views and generated a million comments. The project has also provided pro bono legal services to more than 600 victims.