Women's Views on News |
- The UK, its government and sports
- Health charge plans threaten women’s health
- Stop female genital mutilation
| The UK, its government and sports Posted: 06 Feb 2014 08:02 AM PST
Or can we? Speaking out about the recent persecution of LGBT people in Russia, ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Shadow leader of the House of Commons, Angela Eagle, asked the UK government to outline what it planned to do in order to voice opposition to the persecution of LGBT people. In June the Russian President signed a law which banned the "promotion of non-traditional relationships" to minors, a move that has caused widespread outcry. President Putin has recently said homosexual visitors would be welcome to the games but added they should not spread "gay propaganda". He also said: "We don't have a ban on non-traditional sexual relations. We have a ban on promoting homosexuality and paedophilia amongst minors." But since June there have been numerous reports of LGBT people being beaten, threatened and otherwise persecuted, and that same sex couples are afraid their children could be taken away from them. Elton John condemned the country's anti-gay laws, and spoke about his recent visit to Russia, saying: "The people I met in Moscow – gay men and lesbians in their 20s, 30s and 40s – told me stories about receiving threats from vigilante groups who would 'cure' them of homosexuality by dousing them with urine or beating them up. "One young man was stalked outside a gay club by someone posing as a taxi driver who tried to garrotte him with a guitar string because he was a 'sodomite'." "And some of the vital work providing HIV prevention information to the gay community has been labelled 'homosexual propaganda' and shut down. "Everyone shared stories of verbal and physical abuse – at work, in bars and restaurants or in the street – since the legislation came into force last June." Speaking during Business Questions, Eagle said that while she was looking forward to cheering on the UK’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes, "… we can't ignore the homophobic laws which the Russian government has recently passed and the resulting vicious crackdown. "Surely," she asked, "the reality is that when LGBT people are oppressed, assaulted and killed in Russia, it is our duty to stand up for them. "Will the Leader of the House [of Commons, Andrew Lansley] therefore outline what the government will be doing to make our views on the unacceptability of this repression crystal clear to President Putin?" Lansley replied, saying: 'the Secretary of State will have made clear to the House the support that we are giving to gay groups and organisations in Russia.' And he 'hope[s] that our support for them and for human rights generally is transparent, including arguing for the defence of human rights in Russia. Speaking to the BBC last week, Maria Miller, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said: "We are already putting in place additional support to make sure that gay rights organisations have got the sort of support and expertise that I think can make a real difference to the work on the ground in Russia." Miller added that the British government is supporting LGBT rights campaigners in Russia because it wants to "state very clearly that as a country we believe in freedom of speech and we believe in the importance of universal human rights." She had, she said, "been in Moscow and St Petersburg before Christmas, meeting human rights groups and also Russian government ministers in advance of the Sochi games. "The meetings that we had were very constructive, and we already work with human rights groups on the ground in Russia. We will be talking to them about how that can be continued in the future." So that’s clear. Earlier in January it was confirmed that Miller, who as well as being Culture, Media and Sport Secretary is Minister for Women and Equalities, would attend the Winter Olympics. In December, PinkNews revealed that the Sports and Tourism Minister, Conservative MP Helen Grant, also planned to attend. Prime Minister David Cameron has confirmed he would not be going, so Miller will thus be the UK government’s most senior representative in Sochi. US President Barack Obama also confirmed that he will not be attending the event himself. Neither Cameron nor Obama have said why not. Downing Street denied it was because of Russia's decision to implement anti-gay laws. A source said: "The PM believes in engagement. He doesn't think that boycotts and grand gestures achieve much." But he is not going. Obama did name gay former tennis champion Billie Jean King as part of America's delegation to the Winter Olympics. She will be joined by two openly gay former Olympic athletes: hockey player Caitlin Cahow and figure skater Brian Boitano. Princess Anne, a former Olympic equestrian medallist and a member of the Royal family; former Olympic medallist Sebastian Coe and establishment hero, and the UK’s Minister for Women and Equalities, Maria Miller, will lead the British delegation. Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling upon Russia to act in accordance with the principle of nondiscrimination, a core provision of the Olympic Charter. And as a member of the Council of Europe, and party to multiple human rights treaties, Human Rights Watch points out, Russia should really meet its obligations to provide equal respect and protection for LGBT people. The EU's Justice Commissioner, Luxembourg politician Viviane Reding, however, announced on her official Twitter account quite clearly why she was not going. She said that she would "certainly not go to Sochi as long as minorities are treated the way they are under the current Russian legislation." Glad to hear it.  |
| Health charge plans threaten women’s health Posted: 06 Feb 2014 03:23 AM PST
In March the government plans to publish details of how it intends to extend charges for healthcare services to emergency and primary care. GP consultations will still be free, but services like minor surgery or physiotherapy might be charged for. And while ministers have assured would-be patients that they will not have to pay for emergency treatment at the time, from 2015, they are likely to be faced with a bill afterwards. Patients from overseas are also expected to have to pay higher fees for NHS-subsidised services like eye care, dentistry or medicines. These changes will affect some classes of migrants, such as those coming from outside Europe without indefinite leave to remain, short-term visitors from outside Europe, visa overstayers and failed asylum seekers, who will have to pay for NHS services. The government plans to eventually introduce a Visa Health Surcharge for these groups – once paid, NHS services would be available to them on the same basis as the will be to residents. These changes come on top of charges for NHS services introduced in 2011 for non-European migrants not ‘settled’ in the UK. But it is not clear whether those with private health insurance would be exempted. Maternity Action, which campaigns for the rights of pregnant women and new mothers, is concerned about the lack of clarity surrounding private health insurance, and worries that maternity care is often not covered in these policies – leaving pregnant women and new mothers exposed. Last month Maternity Action published research which suggested that thousands of migrant women were leaving antenatal services and giving birth at home, or turning up in hospitals in labour and with severe complications. Pregnant asylum seekers already have worryingly high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternity Action's director Ros Bragg told the Guardian recently: "”We are in contact with a lot of midwives who tell us women are disappearing from antenatal care because they cannot pay for it. "This is unacceptable. We are very concerned about the charging arrangements currently in place.” Susan Bewley, professor of complex obstetrics at King’s College London, told the Guardian that the policy of charging migrant women for NHS antenatal care put pregnant women in danger. “They may be put off accessing antenatal care that’s good for them and their baby. If health professionals misinterpret their duties towards this group of women they might not come for scans, other checks or to deliver their babies,” she said. “We know that when women fail to access early antenatal care or any care at all, it can lead to poor outcomes for the mother and the baby,” she continued. “We live in a civilised society. It is dangerous not to look after pregnant women properly and not doing so reflects very badly on us all.”  |
| Stop female genital mutilation Posted: 06 Feb 2014 01:09 AM PST
TRIGGER WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS Today is International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, a day to set about raising awareness of the practise and encouraging people to take a stand and to help eradicate it. Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the deliberate mutilation of the female genitalia and commonly carried out on girls between the ages of four and twelve. It can cause severe bleeding, infection, infertility and death. And the practise is unnecessary. Here is one girl's story: Christine, 17 years old, was subjected to female genital mutilation when she was 15, before being forced to marry a much older man. "My mother and brothers said it [FGM] was the only thing for my future. When it had been done to me and I was in seclusion, an old man came to my brothers and gave him 15 cows to marry me. "When the time came for the marriage ceremony his relatives and some guards carried me away. I didn't want to go and cried. "The old man had a wife before me too. She was much older and just treated me like one of her children. "On my first night in the house with the old man we were left alone together. He forced himself on me and I felt so much pain that I cried. "The other wife was waiting at the door and he asked her to come in so that she could make me bigger using a cow's horn. "The eldest daughter of the man also came in to help. "It was very shaming and I felt sad afterwards." Christine escaped from the house and sought help from the head of the mixed primary school – who subsequently contacted ActionAid. By working with the Kongelai Women's Network, ActionAid was able to help Christine find a place at school; the chief of Christine's village was contacted and alerted to what had happened; her family is beginning to accept the wrongdoing and Christine is rebuilding a relationship with her family. ActionAid helps women and girls to escape female genital mutilation by running girls’ clubs and rescue centres, supporting girls to stay in school, understand their rights and build their own futures. ActionAid ambassador, actress Emma Thompson, said, "I have most unfortunately, seen and heard at first-hand about the devastating effects of female genital mutilation. "The initial trauma, the high chances of infection, the hell of sex and childbirth, the loss of all sexual pleasure, the sheer violation of every natural and humane instinct – the stories I have heard beggar belief. "We can no longer turn a blind eye." ActionAid is one group working very closely with communities, educating boys and girls about how damaging female genital mutilation is for both sexes, and says: "If we want to make a dent in this habit of mutilation, we have to support those long-term programmes, they're the only things that produce lasting change." And in the UK? The Home Office has supported a campaign by the NSPCC to help protect children in Britain from mutilation, as well as launching its own initiative, the Violence Against Women and Girls Action Plan. The document boasts of significant government investment in 'scaling up international work to tackle violence against women and girls'. And a message on the Foreign Office website reads: 'If you think that a girl or young woman is in danger of FGM…contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office if she has already been taken abroad.' And the threat of FGM constitutes grounds for claiming asylum in Britain. Nevertheless, according to a recent BBC report, hundreds of vulnerable women have had their applications rejected by UKBA in recent years. A report from the Royal College of Midwives, identified more than 66,000 victims of FGM in England and Wales and warned that 24,000 girls under the age of 15 were at risk. The report called for NHS workers to gather information on FGM and share it with police, education and social care worker. It also called for FGM to be treated as child abuse. And it called for health workers who detect evidence of FGM to treat it as a crime and inform the police. The UK government’s minister for crime prevention, Norman Baker, pointed out that there isn't any religion which condones FGM, "so it’s important that we get to the hard-to-reach communities who believe that their religion demands, or sanctions, FGM.” In December last year the Home Affairs Committee announced an inquiry into female genital mutilation (FGM). A major inquiry that will look at current legal framework’s suitability given there has not been a single prosecution in three decades. The inquiry is to consider the following questions: How effective is the existing legislative framework on FGM, and what are the barriers to achieving a successful prosecution in the UK? Which groups in the UK are most at risk of FGM (whether in this country or abroad), and what are the barriers to identification and intervention? What are the respective roles of the police, health, education and social care professionals, and the third sector; and how can multi-agency co-operation be improved? How can the systems for collecting and sharing information on FGM be improved? How effective are existing efforts to raise awareness of FGM? How can the available support and services be improved for women and girls in the UK who have suffered FGM? The Committee has asked for written submissions on these issues: they need to be in by noon on 12 February 2014.  |
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