Women's Views on News |
| If Human Rights Act scrapped, women will suffer Posted: 29 Aug 2014 03:59 AM PDT
By Charlotte Thomas. Gone are the days in the UK when women could not vote, own property, be educated, or hold positions of authority. Thankfully, on paper at least, society now no longer believes that domestic violence should be considered a private matter, or that sexual violence in the home doesn't happen. We are lucky enough to live in an age of such freedoms thanks to the sacrifice and determined fight of thousands of women before us. Because of this, I sometimes hear it said that the quest for equality is over – that there is nothing stopping women from achieving everything we want to achieve, and there is nothing left to fight for. But tell that to the woman who, at eight months pregnant, is fleeing domestic violence. Her partner has been tracking her every move, taken away her money, and beats her regularly. She approaches her local council for help. The council do not explain to her, as they should, that she is entitled to make a homelessness application because of her situation. Instead they try to help her find new rented accommodation, and fail to offer accommodation in the interim – she is left homeless. Tell that to the women who were attacked by the 'black cab rapist', drugged and raped in the back of a taxi. They went to the police to report the crime. The police failed to properly investigate their claims of rape. Not only did those women have to suffer twice by experiencing the attacks in the first place and then not being taken seriously, but their attacker was free to continue his violent assaults on up to another 100 women. It's obvious that there is still much work to be done. Thankfully, our task is made easier by the human rights legislation, passed by the last Labour Government in 1998. The Human Rights Act places a positive obligation on the state to prevent human rights violations. In practice, it means police have to investigate when people make allegations of rape, and that local authorities must step in to provide help to victims of domestic violence. Now the Tories want to scrap the Human Rights Act. They're also threatening to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights – the last line of defence for victims. The Our Human Rights campaign this week shows us how important human rights are for protecting vulnerable people. It references the two cases I describe above in particular, where the Human Rights Act was used to overturn the decision to deny shelter to a woman seeking refuge from domestic violence, and to challenge a decision by police not to properly investigate crimes committed by the black cab rapist. There are many other examples of where human rights can make a difference in helping to protect vulnerable people, particularly women. The 66,000 women and girls in the UK estimated to have experienced Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The women trafficked into this country as children to marry much older men, and subsequently subjected to extreme sexual violence and forced into prostitution. And all the three million women across the UK that have experience rape, domestic violence, trafficking, forced marriage or other violence every year. Whilst hard-fought for legislation exists to protect against most of these events, there are very often gaps, because no legislation can possibly foresee all the potential cases that might arise within a given context. The landscape is also changing. With technological developments come new threats and challenges to the safety of women and girls online. So-called 'Revenge Porn', 'sexting' amongst children, hate-speech often filled with threats of sexual violence and directed at women who dare to voice their opinions on social media. There are all prime examples of issues that legislation is currently struggling to deal with effectively. The Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights are able to fill these gaps, both because they have a sound overall vision of what it means to be treated with dignity as an equal citizen, and also because they allow individuals to challenge greater powers when such rights are undermined. Under this government, we have witnessed a regression in women's human rights. The use of community resolutions for cases of domestic violence has increased by nearly 250 per cent since 2009. The drop in prosecutions and convictions for rape, child sex offences and domestic violence, even though reported offences are going up. Not to mention the cumulative impact of cuts to police, councils, health budgets. For those experiencing domestic violence, 230 women a day are being turned away from refuges that have experienced cuts and do not have the capacity to help them. The Tory threat to dismantle our human rights framework is just another example of their campaign against women's rights, and Labour must stand up against it. Charlotte Thomas is a Campaigns Officer for the Labour Campaign for Human Rights. A version of this article first appeared in Labour List on 28 August 2014.  |
| Police spy women will continue fight Posted: 29 Aug 2014 01:09 AM PDT
Eight women who were deceived into entering long term intimate sexual relationships with undercover police officers have expressed their determination to continue their battle to expose the grave violations, combat the cover-up and achieve justice and accountability, following the recent CPS decision not to bring criminal charges. One woman, known as 'Laura', who provided a detailed statement to the police over three years ago about her relationship with Jim Boyling and his deception and abusive behaviour, has said she is considering seeking a review of the CPS decision. Other women within the group later met with officers from Operation Herne with a view to providing statements but withdrew from the process when they were told, in contrast to the investigation into Boyling, that the police would "Neither Confirm Nor Deny" whether the men they were in relationships with were undercover police officers. 'Laura' provided a detailed statement setting out how Jim Boyling, who was posing as an environmental activist, Jim Sutton, had convinced her he was a fellow spirit, using an arsenal of police resources and training to disguise his real identity and lure her into the relationship, subsequently having two children with him. She said: "They not only invaded my body, invaded my womb, they robbed my relationship to the world, my sense of safety, my sense of self, my ability to trust, years of my life and my children's childhoods. "I entered this process not only for justice for myself and others, but to see an end to this practice now and in the future,” she added. "We have not reached that point yet. I believe this practice is still continuing. "If no officers are held to account, how can we have any confidence that it won't happen again and again?" Birnberg Peirce and Partners represent the eight women who are seeking justice and accountability in respect of undercover officers who had long-term intimate sexual relationships with undercover police officers. Five of those women had relationships with four officers who were operatives within the Metropolitan Police's Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). The women recently achieved a partial victory in challenging the Metropolitan Police's claimed policy of Neither Confirm Nor Deny following a legal challenge which resulted in the court stating that the police could not sustain their position in respect of Jim Boyling and Bob Lambert. The police’s Amended Defence to civil proceedings very recently admitted that Boyling and Lambert did have the relationships that were alleged, but denied that these were "expressly authorised or tacitly acquiesced". It was suggested that these relationships were based on "genuine feelings of mutual attraction". But all the women say this response is utterly inappropriate and insulting. They say that their consent was undermined by the level of deception, not simply as to who these men were but as to the purpose of these relationships. Operation Herne, in their second report published earlier this year, said, "it would be inappropriate for such covertly deployed officers to engage in intimate sexual relationships with those they are employed to infiltrate and target. "Such an activity can only be seen as an abject failure of deployment, a gross abuse of their role and as a police officer and an individual and organisational failing." Harriet Wistrich, solicitor for the women said, "In light of the very public acknowledgement of the 'gross abuse of their role', it makes no sense to my clients that there can be no prosecution arising from the admitted activities of these police officers, particularly in the case where a credible complainant has already provided evidence to their inquiry. "As usual, when it comes to prosecuting the police for criminal offences, there is a clear double standard. "When a woman presenting as a man can be convicted of a sexual offence in an otherwise consensual sexual relationship why not a male police spy pretending to be an activist?" The women all agree that "This isn't just lying about already having a wife (though all the officers did), this isn't even just about pretending to be the exact opposite of what they are. "This is someone who is only in your life as a paid agent to undermine what matters most to you, a relationship controlled by an unseen committee of their superior officers. "This is not informed consent. It is abuse."  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Women's Views on News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |