Friday, August 15, 2014

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Safe voting for the unsafe

Posted: 14 Aug 2014 08:00 AM PDT

scottish women's aid, #safevote, Sign up for Anonymous Voter Registration.

Scottish Women's Aid has launched #safevotes, a new campaign to encourage women and young people who are eligible to vote but fear being traced, to sign up for Anonymous Voter Registration (AVR).

Anonymous Voter Registration means voters will be able to keep safe but still vote – by keeping their address confidential.

By filling out a simple form and providing a few pieces of information, everyone will be able to have a safe vote.

Many women and young people escaping domestic abuse avoid voting for fear of their address being made public, missing out on voting becuase they are afraid of being traced through the electoral register.

But Anonymous Voter Registration is a procedure available to people meeting certain statutory requirements where, if their name or address were listed on the electoral register, their safety would be at risk.

Any other person in the same household as a person at risk also qualifies to register as an anonymous elector.

So the woman or young person can register to vote but their address is kept in a separate, confidential register that is not accessible to the public.

This allows women and young people to register to vote without having to be recorded in the public register, and so avoid compromising their safety.

If you would like to register to vote, and want to ensure your address is kept confidentially, fill out this form.

To find out where to send your form to, go to About My Vote and type in your postcode.

And if you feel unsafe about having your polling card, postal vote or proxy vote form sent to you address you can ask for it to be sent to any other secure address, including your local Electoral Registration Office.

No one, as Lily Greenan, CEO of Scottish Women's Aid, said, should have to choose between their vote and their safety,

And since young people aged 16 and 17 have been allowed to vote on the Scottish Independence Referendum, young voters can also apply for Anonymous Voter Registration. They have to use the same form as adult voters and have to provide their date of birth.

They must meet the criteria set out in the form, and have to apply individually even if an adult in their household has also applied for Anonymous Voter Registration.

Young people in temporary accommodation can register their address wherever they are currently staying.

And if a young person doesn’t have an address at all, arrangements can be made for their registration to be made to another address and their information sent to the Electoral Registration Office for collection.

If you’d like to register to vote, and want to ensure your address is kept confidential, fill out this form.

To find out where to send your form to, go to About My Vote and type in your postcode.

Or if you’d like to talk to someone about voting safely, contact your local Women’s Aid group.

Scottish Women's Aid wants to ensure that women and young people escaping domestic abuse know they can have a safe vote and be part of the future of Scotland when Scotland goes to the polls on 18 September.

Help spread the news: join 19 August's Thunderclap and help Scottish Women’s Aid in sharing this message together at the same time – automatically.

Thanks.

And life after domestic abuse?

Posted: 14 Aug 2014 06:21 AM PDT

report on needs of women who have escaped domestic abuseWomen need support that extends far beyond any refuge stay.

A new report from the Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit  (CWASU) and Solace Women's Aid looks in depth at the long-term needs of domestic abuse survivors and their families.

In a first of its kind for Europe, a three-year study tracked 100 women as they attempted to rebuild their lives after domestic violence.

Common assumptions would have us believe that leaving an abusive man is the final step in a woman's experience of domestic abuse. Sadly this is not the case.

Women need support that extends far beyond any refuge stay.

The practical and emotional support needs of women have to be met by policy makers and funders.

Which means they have to understand the needs of women and their children.

Liz Kelly, director of CWASU, said: "That 90 per cent of the sample experienced post separation abuse shows that leaving violent men does not make women and children safe.

“Specialist support and the women's own ongoing safety work was more effective here than interventions of statutory agencies."

After separation women can receive a number of interventions from a variety of statutory agencies: the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the probation services, Social Services, children and family courts services, health professionals, housing officers… the list goes on.

But the report found that, aside from some dedicated individuals, the structural responses offered by these services can be lacking in any solid understanding of the range of behaviours that constitute domestic abuse.

Women reported being paranoid and scared of the very statutory services that in theory are designed to support and protect them.

Key to women's recovery is the ability to build and grow strong feelings of independence and safety.

These can take years to develop after the women’s experiences of coercion and control, but the report makes a convincing argument that any individual women's best efforts are being limited by policies that increase poverty and insecure housing.

Cuts to legal aid, the ‘bedroom tax’ and universal credit are all cited as negatively impacting a woman's ability to build a new life for herself and her children.

The report describes for policy makers and commissioners the holistic cross-cutting services that are needed so that women can be offered full support, widening the focus from lowering risk and homicide reduction to include providing true reparative care.

For those in specialist women's services these will feel familiar: counselling, peer support and group work, networks of trusted friends with an understanding of domestic violence, advocacy in health and housing, access to legal information and solicitors, employment support and CV writing, and family and parenting programmes to support the children.

To download the full report click here.

The specialist services have known all this since the 1970s; let's hope that our commissioners and funders pay attention to and act on the recommendations made in this report.

Report: government failing disabled people

Posted: 14 Aug 2014 04:55 AM PDT

just fair, report, austrity, UK government, disabled people's rightsGovernment policies are causing significant hardship.

A report published recently by campaigners Just Fair says that the UK government is in breach of its legal obligations to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of disabled people.

The report is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent to which the UK government is meeting its international obligations to realise the rights of disabled people in the austerity era.

It examines the rights to independent living, work, social security, social protection and an adequate standard of living.

Combining legal analysis with testimony-based evidence, the report concludes that government policies are compromising disabled people's enjoyment of these fundamental rights, causing significant hardship.

The 24-page report – Dignity and Opportunity for All: Securing the rights of disabled people in the austerity era – analyses the impact on disabled people of public austerity and the reform of social security.

The report says that employment and social security policies under current and recent UK governments have entailed significant expenditure on frequent assessments, multiple tribunal appeals and employment support, but despite this, there is evidence that the UK is failing to meet a range of its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

These include the government's obligation to avoid impermissible backward steps in terms of giving effect to the rights to work, social security, social protection and an adequate standard of living.

There are also concerns that the State does not always meet its minimum core obligations to satisfy disabled people's needs.

And, the report says, there is a clear need for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and JobCentre Plus to refocus their priorities and resources towards supporting and enabling disabled people to enjoy their rights to work, social security, social protection and an adequate standard of living set out in Articles 6, 9 and 11 ICESCR and Article 28 UNCRPD.

Article 6 says:

'1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right.'

'2. The steps to be taken by a State Party to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include technical and vocational guidance and training programmes, policies and techniques to achieve steady economic, social and cultural development and full and productive employment under conditions safeguarding fundamental political and economic freedoms to the individual.'

Article 9: 'The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to social security, including social insurance.’

and Article 11:

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free consent.

2. The States Parties to the present Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed:

(a) To improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural resources;

(b) Taking into account the problems of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.

And Article 28 ‘Adequate standard of living and social protection’:

1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability.

2. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social protection and to the enjoyment of that right without discrimination on the basis of disability, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right, including measures:

a) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services, and to ensure access to appropriate and affordable services, devices and other assistance for disability-related needs;

b) To ensure access by persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to social protection programmes and poverty reduction programmes;

c) To ensure access by persons with disabilities and their families living in situations of poverty to assistance from the State with disability-related expenses, including adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care;

d) To ensure access by persons with disabilities to public housing programmes;

e) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to retirement benefits and programmes.

Writing in the summary report’s foreword, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton says: ‘For many disabled people, fundamental rights to life, liberty and to a private and family life can only be realised with financial or practical support.

‘In 2012, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights (on which I sat) noted that reforms and cuts to social security benefits, housing benefit, social care and the Independent Living Fund "risk interacting in a particularly harmful way for disabled people".

‘This timely and thoroughly evidenced report demonstrates that the risk is becoming reality for unprecedented numbers of disabled people, and that the UK is taking major backwards steps regarding disabled people's human rights, in breach of its obligations under international law.’