Women's Views on News |
- Welsh schools to help stop violence against women
- Call for expiry date for gender inequality
- Help reinstate the NHS
| Welsh schools to help stop violence against women Posted: 11 Mar 2015 05:01 AM PDT
This is a landmark act but it almost failed at the last moment when women's rights campaigners threatened to block the bill unless it included provisions to integrate schools into the country-wide scheme to prevent gender-based violence. They were calling for each school to have a person with the training responsible for dealing with issues of violence and abuse in the home, and for healthy relationships to be part of Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) classes. The Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats had all been backing calls from the Wales Violence Against Women action group for more to be done to ensure that schools tackle the issues covered in the bill. And as Labour does not have an overall majority in the Welsh Assembly, the Welsh government faced losing the entire bill if all the opposition AMs voted against it. Last minute concessions saved the bill. The education system has the potential to raise awareness of women's human rights and provide support systems to young people at risk of harm. But many schools are failing to support their pupils: and, as Joanne Payton wrote in her recent blog for IKWRO, ‘we still hear of teachers who shrug, and tell girls 'it's their culture' to be forced into marriage and raped’. In the Welsh Migration Partnership's Uncharted Territory report, which Payton co-authored, investigating the domestic violence affecting asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant women Wales, among the recommendations was one saying that: 'Healthy Relationships' education should sensitively address a variety of patterns of violence within the family, in all primary and secondary schools in Wales in order that girls at risk of forced marriage, 'honour'- based violence, FGM and other forms of abuse can have confidence that their concerns are understood and that there is support available to them. These topics should be broached early in the programme, given that these issues may affect girls at young ages. It is important to establish, Payton continued, that in Wales, as in the rest of the UK, young people who may be suffering from various different kinds of violence still have the RightToKnow, and the ability to seek help, regardless of their identity and background. |
| Call for expiry date for gender inequality Posted: 11 Mar 2015 04:10 AM PDT
At a star-studded event in New York City, high-powered speakers took the stage to put out a clarion call for a firm expiry date of 2030 for gender inequality, with real equality being nothing short of 50-50. UN Women hosted a – packed – ‘Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality’ event on 10 March which celebrated the 20th anniversary of the historic Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Speakers called for bolder actions from governments and louder mobilisation from citizens to move forward the agenda on women's rights and gender equality, saying progress in the last 20 years has been too slow. Keynote speeches from the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened the evening, which brought together politics, arts, philanthropy and activism in a powerful combination to support the rights of women and girls worldwide to an audience of some 2,000 people. The event also went global through social media, including via a live Twitter mirror where celebrities posted from the event, and where tweets from all over the world were curated. "Today we celebrate, but we still have a long way to go," Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said. "It is a time to recalibrate the global agenda. As we walk this path … we bring the same courage, the same resilience, the same persistence, to make Planet 50-50 a reality. "Because we can build on the accomplishments and the experience that we already have." "Women's and girls' voices too often go unheard, their talents and initiative unused. This is to the detriment of the world's prosperity and security," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "Too often, leaders have used women to advance power. I believe we must use power to advance women." Emphasising the leitmotif of the evening, UN Women's executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka underlined the benefits of a gender-equal society, and the need for immediate concerted action. "This evening celebrates women's achievements since Beijing; it's also a moment to gather up and focus our combined energy on the task ahead," she said. "Tonight, I am putting out an SOS to the world: let's STEP IT UP. "We can no longer leave behind half the world's population. Women and girls are essential equal partners for real progress, for peace, for development and for a world in balance." Moderated by WABC's Sade Baderinwa, the event commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing that set the ground-breaking agenda for women's rights in 1995. "Twenty years ago, declaring that women's rights are human rights was considered ground-breaking – thankfully it's now routine," former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said. "I see a future where we unlock the vast potential for women. "To realise this vision we'll have to step it up – step up our commitment to finishing this, the great unfinished business of the 21st century." Bringing diverse perspectives, rousing speeches from Academy Award-winner Patricia Arquette, Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio, global philanthropist Melinda Gates spotlighted the realities women and girls face worldwide. Many are routinely subjected to discrimination and violence in every country. "We need action to see change. Who is responsible for this change? You are. I am," said Patricia Arquette, who issued a strong call to close the gender pay gap. "We are voters. We make 87 per cent of the purchasing decisions. We have the power of our purse to make sure the companies we buy from treat their employees fairly." Electrifying performances brought the message home and the audience to their feet, including a song and poem by UN Women's Goodwill Ambassador and actor-director-singer from India Farhan Akhtar, founder of Men Against Rape and Discrimination (MARD). "Gender violence and gender inequality is not just a women's issue," he said. "It's also a man's issue. It's not just because we have mothers, wives, sisters and daughters. We're here because it's a human rights issue and we are all human beings." Other performers included acclaimed singer and actress Jill Scott, R&B artist Melanie Fiona and Grammy nominated duo Les Nubians, comedian and actress Maysoon Zayid and a host of others. Pledging their support to the unfinished business of gender quality, private sector leaders such as Twitter supported the event, while others made concrete commitments: the Angelica Fuentes Foundation, Uber, the UN Foundation, and the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women and Girls, among others. "Just remember this: because of an imbalance of power, gender inequalities and violence, little girls and women are forfeiting their choices, their smiles, their vitality, their art, their music, their childhoods, and their identities," Cheryl Saban said. "But we cannot sit here with the resources we all have at our disposal and let them also lose their hope," Saban, founder of the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women and Girls, which supported the event, continued, "I challenge you to find your inner "roar" and Run like a Girl." |
| Posted: 11 Mar 2015 02:42 AM PDT
An NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 is to be laid before parliament today by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, with – the requisite – cross-party support from 11 more MPs. The idea is that this could be the start of restoring the NHS back to its founding principles, and stopping the process of breaking apart and handing over of services to private healthcare organisations – which current legislation has guaranteed. But one aim of the campaigners behind this Bill is for people to ask their MP and parliamentary candidates to state their support for an NHS Reinstatement Bill to be included in the Queen's Speech after the General Election. The NHS Reinstatement Bill was drafted in August 2014 by Professor Allyson Pollock, professor of public health research and policy at Queen Mary University of London, and barrister Peter Roderick. After a consultation period that finished in December 2014 a second version of the Bill was published in February 2015 and this, with a few small changes, is what will be presented. This Bill is unique amongst proposals for changes to the law governing the NHS in having no party affiliation: it is non-partisan. It frames a clear mechanism to protect the NHS against the damage of privatisation, in overturning key aspects of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (HSCA) and earlier legislation that set the NHS in England on the road to fragmentation – often without public consultation, and nearly always without the public's full awareness. Far from being yet another 'top-down, centralised, re-structuring', crucially it hands responsibility for provision of service back to the Secretary of State for Health, something the HSCA severed – thereby effectively uncoupling ultimate responsibility for the NHS from Parliament. It also spells out how, if the NHS is to be saved, it must: Reinstate the government's legal duty to provide key NHS services in England; Abolish market structures like foundation trusts; Abolish competition and contracts; Centralise PFI debt to protect individual trusts from its impact; Stop immigration health charges; Stop treaties like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) without Parliament's approval if they cover the NHS; Establish area Health Boards from the bottom up; Re-establish Community Health Councils for public accountability; and Require national terms and conditions under the NHS Staff Council and Agenda for Change system. For as MP Caroline Lucas said: "Our NHS is being dismantled piece by piece. "A fragmented, market-based structure isn't the "national" service that so many people fought for so courageously. "It mustn't be reduced to a set of transactions, contracts and bidding wars that hollow it into little more than a logo – and waste resources that could be spent on front-line patient care." 'Presenting' the Bill is a mechanism to publish the Bill formally in the House of Commons. Lucas will be asked who is introducing the Bill, read out the names of the other MPs, and will then walk three steps down the middle of the Commons, bow, take three more steps, bow again, and will then hand the Bill in at the table. It will be read out by the clerk and will then be formally listed as one of this year's bills. Notionally Caroline Lucas will name a day for the Second Reading debate, although at this stage in the parliamentary cycle this will not happen before the General Election. The full text of the Bill should be published shortly after it has been presented, hopefully on 12 March. The published Bill will have a very small number of changes to the second version of the Bill that campaigners have prepared, and it should then be available on Parliament's website. Even though there is no parliamentary time to take the Bill any further in this parliament, this is an important milestone in showing cross-party support, and enabling other MPs to see the full text of the Bill. Professor Allyson Pollock: "One of the things we want to ensure is that there is no horse-trading when it comes to the reinstatement of the NHS. "Without the restoration of the duty to provide core-listed services, which the Health and Social Care Act removed from the Secretary of State, we will continue to see the NHS wither away. "We will then see a race to the bottom: the blurring of health and social care, more introduction of charges, and marketisation. "So that's why we've been working so hard on the NHS Reinstatement Bill. We're been trying to get cross-party support and we have it. "What we need people to do is to get involved in the campaign to get prospective parliamentary candidates to sign up to the legislation so that if there's a hung parliament and if deals are being done they know that the NHS cannot be part of the horse-trading, it is absolutely sacrosanct. "I hope everyone will support the Reinstatement Bill and what we are trying to do around it.' The Bill has support from across the political spectrum. The MPs who have signed up to it so far are: Caroline Lucas; Liberal Democrat Andrew George; John Pugh; Labour's Michael Meacher; Chris Williamson; Roger Godsiff; Kelvin Hopkins; Jeremy Corbyn; John McDonnell; Eilidh Whiteford; Plaid Cymru's Hywell Williams and Katy Clark. Parliamentary procedure limits the number of MPs who can support tabling a Bill before Parliament to 12. The aim of the campaign has always been to for people to ask their MP and parliamentary candidates to state their support for an NHS Reinstatement Bill to be included in the Queen's Speech after the General Election. You can help. Please do. Take action – write to your MP and candidates today. |
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