Women's Views on News |
- Occupation, environment and breast cancer
- Changing the words ‘child prostitution’
- Worldwide violence against women: girls speak out
| Occupation, environment and breast cancer Posted: 15 Jan 2015 06:38 AM PST
A new campaign on breast cancer is looking at the environment, people’s occupations and at the obstacles to getting both of these risk factors taken seriously in the current breast cancer debate. From Pink to Prevention is a new breast cancer campaign that exposes the barriers to achieving 'primary prevention' – stopping the disease before it starts. Central to the campaign is one big fundamental question needing to be put to all the individuals, organisations and institutions with the power to make or to influence decisions affecting public and occupational health in general and breast cancer incidence in particular. The government, the chemicals industry, public health agencies, cancer charities, the cancer establishment, cancer and science research bodies, the breast cancer industry, big pharma, trade unions, and the entire corporate pink-driven industry are being called upon to explain to all women who have had, who now have and who will have breast cancer, why they persist in refusing to acknowledge the role of environmental and occupational toxins and other factors of influence such as shift work, in breast cancer and why they persist in ignoring decades of scientific evidence up to the present day – from organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Union (EU) and many other respected scientific bodies – on which the link between our lifelong (womb to grave) exposures to toxins and the escalating incidence of breast cancer, among many other diseases, is based. Over the decades, many groups and people have been asking questions such as this – and they still await a satisfactory answer. What is deeply concerning is the consistent pushing of lifestyle factors as the main culprit behind the rising incidence of the disease. And what is totally mystifying is why primary prevention is ignored in favour of addressing the 30 – 50 per cent of breast cancer cases thought to be linked to our lifestyle – leaving 50 – 70 per cent of cases unanswered. It is very hard to understand why the environmental and occupational links to breast cancer have been totally marginalised. From Pink to Prevention argue that the barriers to prevention – acceptance, confusion, fixation, ignorance, procrastination, invisibility, fear and vested interests – play a huge role in barring progress on primary prevention. We see the 'pink' takeover of breast cancer as aiding and abetting these barriers since fundraising has become the predominant 'pink-driven' focus for the public. Fundraising is good – but not when it displaces other, equally vital elements of the debate. Not when it displaces primary prevention. At From Pink to Prevention we are convinced that it is by asking this one big fundamental question and by revealing the barriers to the advancement of prevention policies and strategies for breast cancer (and many other diseases with proven links to environmental and occupational toxins), that we can help to build public awareness and support for the knowledge-based, people-before-profit, ethically sound and beneficial to people and environment changes we urgently need to see enacted from those with power and position to make them happen. Please join us, help us, support us, like us and follow us, and help us overcome the barriers and get an answer to the big question.  |
| Changing the words ‘child prostitution’ Posted: 15 Jan 2015 05:20 AM PST
Campaigning MP Ann Coffey has tabled a series of amendments to the Serious Crime Bill to remove all references to ‘child prostitution’ from legislation. Coffey pointed out that the term 'child prostitute' is an outdated insult to victims, and said : "There is no such thing as a child prostitute – only a sexually abused or exploited child. "The term child prostitute is inappropriate and is an insult to innocent victims – who have been robbed of their childhood and then stigmatised and blamed. "Britain should lead the world in outlawing this term," she continued. "Language is important and the continued use of the term by the criminal justice system gives out the wrong message to those who are being abused; the adults who abuse them and to the general public. "It is shameful to us all that the term child prostitute remains in law. It is an outdated insult to victims, many of who lives have been ruined. It is inappropriate; no one believes it any longer; it is plain wrong and it should go!" Coffey also tabled amendments that will make it much harder for defendants to argue consent in cases of child sexual exploitation. These will all be discussed in the Committee stage of the Bill this month. During the second reading of the Serious Crime Bill in the House of Commons Coffey said there were currently 16 pieces of legislation that use the term 'child prostitute,' which implied an element of complicity and gave the idea of a consensual contract of a child offering sex in return for gifts or money. Coffey said it was "shameful" that the offence of loitering or soliciting for prostitution – contrary to section 1 of the Street Offences Act 1959, as amended by section 16 of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 – can still be committed by a child aged 10 or over. There is also the offence of 'controlling a child prostitute or child involved in pornography' in the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and 'causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography'. As recently as June 2014, a Bolton man was charged by Greater Manchester police and found guilty of 'controlling a child prostitute for financial gain'. Coffey's proposed amendments would mean that all references to a child prostitute or prostitution would be substituted with "sexually exploited" or "sexual exploitation" by . In October Coffey published an independent report, 'Real Voices – Child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester', which said that child sexual exploitation had become a 'social norm' in some neighbourhoods. One of the recommendations in that report was the removal of all references to child prostitution in legislation. Coffey said in recent years there has been a significant cultural shift away from talking about child prostitution to child protection and that removing references in law would be the final piece of the jigsaw. Only six years ago the sexual exploitation of children was still being referred to as child prostitution in statutory guidance. It was updated in 2009 and more appropriately entitled: 'Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation.' It said explicitly: "Children who are sexually exploited are the victims of sexual abuse and should be safeguarded from further harm. "Sexually exploited children should not be regarded as criminals and the primary law enforcement response must be directed at perpetrators who groom children for sexual exploitation." However, although current Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) guidelines state that children should generally be treated as a victim of sexual abuse, it still adds and 'only where there is a persistent and voluntary return to prostitution and where there is a genuine choice should a prosecution be considered.' Because it used to be seen as child prostitution, the children were not seen as victims and their sexual abuse was seen as self-inflicted. These attitudes were identified in the Rochdale Overview Report in December 2013. Social workers talked about the victims making 'lifestyle choices'. One Rochdale father even described being told by social workers that his daughter was a 'child prostitute'. Figures provided by the House of Commons library for the Real Voices report show that between 1992 and 1996 there were 1,449 cautions – about 300 a year – for prostitution for under-18 year-olds and 976 court proceedings for loitering, or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution under the Street Offences Act 1959. In the four years between 2010 and 2013 this had dropped to 15 cautions issued to juveniles under the age of 18 and seven defendants under the age of 18 were proceeded against. Of those seven defendants, three were found guilty but none were imprisoned. In 2013 there were five cautions for prostitution related offences for those aged 15-17 and two were proceeded against and found guilty. One received a £35 fine and the other a Youth Referral Order. Coffey said: "Although these figures show that attitudes are changing, it is wrong that we still have legislation referring to child prostitution on the statute books because of the message it sends out. "Referring to a young person as a child prostitute fuels old fashioned attitudes that have done so much harm to children over the years because it feeds the idea that the child is in some way to blame for their own abuse. "Language is important as it shapes attitudes. It is incongruous and wrong that it still remains in statute. "I hope that there will be cross party support for amendments I am planning to table to this Bill which will consign the term child prostitution to the history books together with amendments that will make it much harder for defendants to argue consent in cases of child sexual exploitation."  |
| Worldwide violence against women: girls speak out Posted: 15 Jan 2015 02:41 AM PST
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "violence against women"? A wife seeking refuge from an abusive husband after another beating, a young woman sexually assaulted on her way home from a night out. These are the common images of violence perpetrated against women in our own society. But the true nature of violence against women takes in a much wider range of problems, especially globally. The scale of violence is shocking, particularly in developing nations, where traditional attitudes towards gender roles and equality make violence against women a daily reality for so many girls and women. A recent report, published by Plan UK, which questioned more than 7,000 girls and boys, revealed that the violence and fear reaches into every aspect of the lives of girls. So that even where they should feel safest, in their homes and communities, girls feel threatened. In one area of Bangladesh, for example, 77 per cent of girls reported not feeling safe in their community. Commonly reported instances of violence against women in the community included physical attacks; rape/sexual assault; economic exploitation; and intimidation. If girls can't feel safe walking the streets of their neighbourhood or within their own homes, then how can they feel secure and supported anywhere? The multi-faceted nature of violence against women also means that attacks on women take more than the obvious forms of physical and sexual attacks. In the developing world a major threat to the safety of all girls is the prevalence of early and forced marriage. Being able to choose who and when we marry is a major sign of female emancipation, but for huge swathes of girls around the world this is a distant dream; 39 per cent of girls in the study reported never being able to make decisions about marriage. In specific regions this rate increases drastically, most notably in Asia, where it was 69 per cent, and West Africa – 52 per cent. Early marriage increases health problems in girls, most notably issues of sexual health, and also negatively impacts their education and life chances. It also leads to a second, less ‘obvious’ form of violence against women: adolescent pregnancy. In the survey, 53 per cent of girls said that they had no control over their pregnancy. Given that childbirth is the leading killer of girls aged 15-19, it is obvious why these two issues need to be urgently addressed. Education is widely recognised as one of the most powerful way to change people's lives; it gives them better opportunities and more control of their lives, and can change the fortunes of not just individuals but entire communities and nations. But for many girls, school is just another arena for violence. In school girls often feel that they cannot participate as much as boys, or feel uncomfortable talking to male teachers. But more tellingly girls often feel unsafe in and around school. In one area of Pakistan just 33 per cent of girls said they felt safe travelling to and from school. The result is that girls will miss classes and fall behind – or drop out of school entirely. They are then consigned to a life of home keeping and child-raising, often being married off young to stop them being a burden on their parents. If girls in developing nations are to fulfil their dreams, and achieve everything they can, they have to live in a world free from violence and intimidation. There are no easy answers to the problem though. Change can only be achieved through a committed effort to protects girls' rights and alter attitudes. And one way you can help is if you join Plan UK's campaign to end violence against women.  |
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