Friday, March 1, 2013

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Walby on the economic crisis and women

Posted: 28 Feb 2013 08:42 AM PST

Sylvia-WalbyWhat is the impact of the economic crisis on women?

Women's Views on News will shortly be attending an inter-parliamentary meeting and seminar at the European Parliament in Brussels looking at the impact of the economic crisis on women.

Professor Sylvia Walby OBE, Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, a renowned British sociologist and one of the world's leading authorities on gender, will be speaking at the event.

She is most notably recognised for her work in the areas of domestic violence, patriarchy, gender relations in the work place and globalisation.

Professor Walby, who is also United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) chair in Gender, and Jude Towers, of Lancaster University, produced a report, published on 1 February, providing evidence of the impact of economic cuts in budgets to services involved in preventing violence against women and girls.

The report was commissioned by the Trust for London and the Northern Rock Foundation.

It collected together data as to where the cuts have been falling, information drawn from approximately 20 published and previously unpublished sources.

The report revealed that the drop in funding has had significant impact on the provision of services in the London localities – and that consequently the frequency and level of violence against women and girls is predicted to increase.

The report outlined some shocking statistics on the impact of funding cuts to services aimed at victim of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Women's Aid for example, is reported as having turned away 320 women seeking refuge on a daily basis in 2011 due to insufficient space.

Further services including statutory sector services with specialist support officers have also been affected by the cuts; this includes cuts in the operating levels of Domestic Abuse Officers, a unit on female genital mutilation and domestic violence courts.

The report stated that the full impact of public sector funding cuts resulting from the Comprehensive Spending Review and other changes in government policy and practice have not yet been fully realised, and that further monitoring and analysis is needed.

It also highlighted how services meeting the needs of female victims of violence are largely provided at a local level, yet funding is largely set at national level with large variations on the cuts being apparent between localities.

Further examples of VAWG services affected by the financial crisis are highlighted in the Trust for London Report.

Refuge, a charity which provides emergency accommodation for women and children, reported cuts to 50 per cent of their contracts,

Respect, a charity which works with perpetrators of domestic violence, reported 44 per cent of services had lost specific projects.

Research from the Women’s Resource Centre found that one in five women’s organisations have closed.

Following publication of the report, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary said: “These figures that show such a steep cut in such a short period of time are shocking.

“I am deeply concerned about this – it is putting women and children in danger and we risk turning back the clock on the important work that has been done to prevent women being put in life-threatening situations.”

Lynne Featherstone, the Home Office minister for equality, called on local authorities not to make disproportionate cuts or look at the women’s sector as a “soft target” for cuts.

“These are tough times and everyone is dealing with cuts, but this coalition government has sent out a very clear message about the importance and value it places on this sector.

“I would rebut very firmly that the sector is in crisis, this government is putting its best foot forward and is committed to ending violence against women and girls,” she said.

In her paper published in 2009 entitled 'Gender and the Financial Crisis', Professor Walby said that the crisis as having disproportionate impacts on the poor and on women.

At the European Parliament in Brussels on 6 March 2013, Professor Walby will present further details on how the spending cuts are impacting on violence against women and how other areas of women's lives are being affected by the financial crisis.

Opposition to US abortion aid ban mounts

Posted: 28 Feb 2013 06:31 AM PST

RedCrossCare for war rape victims should trump national law.

The USA's refusal to allow foreign aid to pay for offering and the provision of abortions to women raped in war is increasingly at odds with the international community.

A recent debate in the UK's House of Lords raised the profile of the issue and adds to international and domestic pressure on President Obama to review the ban.

The US’s current ban is a 1973 amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act that states that ‘no foreign assistance funds may be used to pay for the performance of abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions,’ even if abortion is legal in the state receiving the aid.

The US government is the largest individual donor to ‘the largest, most influential and effective humanitarian organization in the world,’ the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

The USA's stance visibly affects the care made available to women around the world, as seen in the ICRC's lack of publicly referring to abortion.

Internally, however, the organisation's directions are clear.

It advises doctors to provide ‘the best possible response to the victims' needs while upholding the ICRC's general position on abortion, which is that its medical staff do not perform abortions.’

A 2010 report by the USA's Centre for Reproductive Rights said that ‘restrictive abortion laws may criminalize abortion even when it is necessary to save a woman's life or to preserve her physical or mental health.

‘Provider compliance with these restrictive laws can jeopardize women's fundamental rights to life, health and freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment (CIDT).’

Rape has been recognised as a war crime since 1998 and torture since 2000, and women who have been raped and carry the child to term face considerable problems.

Some organisations, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), avoid the ban by segregating their US funds in order to provide abortion care paid for by other donations.

Research published by the WHO in 2011 on US aid policy and induced abortion in sub-Saharan Africa found that ‘if women consider abortion as a way to prevent unwanted births, then policies curtailing the activities of organizations that provide modern contraceptives may inadvertently lead to an increase in the abortion rate.’

The research also found support for ‘our premise that funding for family planning services has a paradoxical effect on abortion outcomes.’

In its current assessment of the status of Millennium Development Goal 5 (Improve Maternal Health), in particular regarding Target 5.B: ‘Achieve universal access to reproductive health’, the UN said that ‘inadequate funding for family planning is a major failure in fulfilling commitments to improving women's reproductive health.’

Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recently spoke out about its commitment to providing independent care, saying that ‘aid must not be hijacked as a political tool.’

And in the UK, a recent House of Lords debate on Rape in Armed Conflict, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead said that "this country must take global leadership on this matter.

"Women raped in war are absolutely entitled [to abortions] as persons who are wounded and sick.”

She went on to say that "Norway has made a bilateral request to the US to ask it to lift the abortion ban on humanitarian aid for women raped in war as a matter of US compliance with the Geneva conventions.

"Why has the UK not followed Norway’s example?"

In response to these and other questions, Baroness Northover, the UK government’s spokesperson in the House of Lords on International Development, said that "The Department for International Development (DfID) requires that all UK-funded humanitarian partners abide by humanitarian principles, including non-discriminatory provision of assistance.

"We do not ask the ICRC to segregate funds as it is fully aware of its obligations to different donors. We have flagged and will continue to flag the UK’s position to the ICRC.

"[And] we are exploring further the Norwegian position."

Baroness Northover also said that "the denial of abortion in a situation that is life threatening or causing unbearable suffering to a victim of armed conflict may therefore contravene Common Article 3 [of the Geneva Conventions].

"Therefore, an abortion may be offered despite being in breach of national law by parties to the conflict or humanitarian organisations providing medical care and assistance.

"Clearly, this service provision very much depends on the facts of each situation but I state clearly that it is our view that there is no blanket ban on such medical help when covered by international humanitarian law even if national laws might be at variance with that."

The Global Justice Center hailed Northover’s words, calling them ‘a historic change [to the UK's] policy on abortions for women raped in armed conflict.’

While questions have been raised about the burden of proof of ‘unbearable suffering,’ the UK's new leadership role is important in questioning publicly the disproportionate power a forty-year-old law holds over international humanitarian aid and the life and death of millions of women and girls around the world.

New pan-European DV protection

Posted: 28 Feb 2013 03:22 AM PST

njRestraining orders obtained in your home country will soon be valid wherever you are in the EU.

A European Union agreement to ensure that a civil protection order, including a restraining  order for domestic violence, can still be enforced if the victim travels or moves country was accepted by the European Parliament n 19 February.

In 2011, the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers decided that it was necessary to adopt the European Protection Order to protect victims of gender violence, harassment, abduction, stalking or attempted murder.

Measures to protect crime victims from aggressors already existed in all EU member states but ceased to apply if the victim moved to another country.

Member states were given three years to transfer this directive into national law.

Last week they finally reached a political agreement in principle on a proposal by the European Commission for an EU-wide protection order.

It means that women who have suffered domestic violence will be able to rely on a restraining order obtained in their home country wherever they are in the EU.

According to reports, the Irish Presidency secured the agreement with the European Parliament on behalf of EU member states.

Ireland’s Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence Alan Shatter said the agreement will enable victims to have ‘continuity of protection’ under the law, which will make travel or relocation a reality for many of them for the first time.

Now member states’ ambassadors, including the Justice and Home Affairs Council, will receive the proposed agreement for their approval at an event in Brussels early next month.

The law was crucial – especially for women in Europe – as surveys had shown around one in five women have suffered physical violence at least once in their lives

Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, said violence against women was the most brutal manifestation of gender inequality and is a violation of human rights that Europe must not and cannot ignore.

"I would like to thank the European Parliament for its strong and very vocal support for the Commission's proposal, and in particular the co-rapporteurs Mr Antonio López-Istúriz and Mrs Antonyia Parvanova.

“I hope that the Parliament and the Council will now swiftly adopt the European Protection Order to ensure victims of domestic violence can feel safe, no matter where they are in Europe," she said.

The draft regulation will now pass to the European Parliament and the Council to be formally finalised.

The United Kingdom is also taking major – concrete – steps to help victims of domestic violence.

On 4 February, the first Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) ever granted in Herefordshire, was administered at Hereford Magistrates Court against a man in his mid 20s from the Hinton area of Hereford and it was to run for 28 days granted as a result of a series alleged domestic violence incidents, which had taken place over a long period of time.

According to the terms of the DVPO, the man will be fined £50 each time he breaches the order, and be brought before the court, which could lead to his imprisonment.

The aim of the DVPO is to force offenders to leave residences and stay away from victims.

Before DVPOs the victim would be moved away from the home to safety as police could only ban offenders from their homes if they had been arrested and charged with a crime.

Speaking about the use of DVPOs, Detective Sergeant Sue Clarke from the Protecting Vulnerable People Unit in Hereford said: “Often victims of domestic abuse are too frightened to make criminal complaints as they fear the immediate reprisals and worry about what the effects of making that complaint might have on their children.

“However, granting a DVPO protects victims by ordering the perpetrator to stay away from them, giving victims time to think clearly about their future and what to do for the best.

“Although the victim’s views are also considered, the whole point of these orders is that they can be made against the wishes of the person who they are protecting. The idea is to protect those who seem incapable of protecting themselves.

“These DVPOs send a clear message to the perpetrators of domestic abuse that we no longer need the victim to co-operate, we will take this action if we feel that the victim is unable to protect themselves and if the children are suffering the effects of domestic abuse within the home.”

The DVPO was also used in Manchester last year where more than 180 of the orders were issued in North and South Manchester, Oldham, Salford and Bolton.

The orders are being tested by the Greater Manchester, Wiltshire and West Mercia police forces for a year which started last July.

In one report a 64-year-old woman, who was granted a DVPO, had suffered abuse from her partner for 21 years. She said the order, which is expected to be adopted around the country, had changed her life.