activities with stakeholders in the private and informal sectors. States must conduct these awarenessraising activities through all appropriate means and channels: poster campaigns, social media campaigns, through advertising and on television, in radio broadcasts, including on community radio, in newspapers, at events at educational establishments and others. 12. Target groups of the campaigns 12. 1. These awareness-raising campaigns must make men and boys responsible for their actions and encourage them to be involved in combating sexual violence and its consequences. The campaigns must also include information on sexual violence against men and boys, and focus on deconstructing stereotypes about masculinity, promoting a non-violent concept of virility that respects gender equality, and encouraging men and boys who are the victims of sexual violence to report and denounce the violence. 12. 1. States must educate advertising professionals, journalists, and other communications specialists, including personnel working in pop culture media and community radio, to combat sexual violence, its causes and consequences. States must encourage information professionals to establish partnerships with public authorities to implement and/or strengthen independent regulations to combat discriminatory stereotypes and depictions, especially those presenting a degrading image of women and girls. These partnerships must also promote women’s voices in the media and advertising. The creation of independent self-regulation mechanisms responsible for setting out ethical guidelines and monitoring their application must also be strongly encouraged. These measures must be taken in strict compliance with freedom of expression and freedom of the press. Explanatory Notes: See Articles 29 and 30 of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development (2008), which urge States Parties to take all necessary measures (including adopting codes of conduct, policies and procedures) to discourage the media from broadcasting violent and degrading images of women, encourage it to give an equal voice to women and men, and play a constructive role in combating gender-based violence. See DAW, DESA, United Nations Handbook for Legislation on Violence against Women, ST/ESA/329, p. 26 (2010). See also the “Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children” in Tanzania (2001-2015), which provides measures to raise awareness in those working in the media to ensure that they refrain from promoting sexist stereotypes and to involve them in preventing and eliminating violence against women (Section 5.2.3). See also the “National Plan to Prevent and Combat Violence Against Women” in Mozambique (2008-2012), which considers advertising, education and awareness-raising as means to prevent and combat violence against women, and provides for broad distribution of the plan and of the information on existing legislation to promote women’s rights. See the “National Action Plan to Combat Gender-Based Violence” in Cap-Verde (2006), which provides for the signing of agreements with public and private sector communications bodies regarding the depiction of women and reporting on violence committed against them. B. EDUCATION 13. Educational programmes 13. 1. States must create educational programmes and materials that promote gender equality, combat discrimination and violence against women, and challenge sexist and gender stereotypes. These programmes and materials must include specific modules on sex education, all forms of sexual violence, its causes and consequences and sexual and reproductive health. 13. 2. These educational programmes and materials must be developed by specialists and be ageappropriate, and adapted to the learning capabilities of young people. They must also include methods to evaluate the programmes and its materials. They must be provided at all educational levels in all schools and universities and in other educational settings such as training institutions, sports centres and culture and leisure centres. GUIDELINES ON COMBATING SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES IN AFRICA 21