The WAVE Network advocates for better legislation and improved implementation of existing laws to prevent and protect women and children from male violence. WAVE is also fighting for the development of additional women support services (WSS), maintenance of adequate long-term funding all over Europe, as well as actively resisting the increase of gender-neutral approaches. Advocacy and lobbying activities include regular meetings with stakeholders and policymakers such as the Victims’ Rights Platform, the Council of Europe, GREVIO, the OSCE, the FEMM Committee and the EC Gender Task Force. The WAVE team engages in around 50 advocacy initiatives every year.
WAVE members are proactively supported in their advocacy and campaigning efforts to positively promote women’s human rights and to counter the ongoing political backlash initiated by many right-wing political actors against women’s rights in Europe. The Campaigning & Advocacy Coordinator leads WAVE’s campaigning and advocacy work through developing an effective annual organisational campaigning strategy together with WAVE members, ensuring appropriate prioritisation of campaigning topics, as well as regular and ad-hoc campaigning activities. In 2022, WAVE launched a pilot year to redesign the Advocacy & Campaigning area, built on the learnings and experiences of the WAVE Step Up! Campaign, a five-year European-wide awareness-raising campaign which came to an end in 2021.
