Thursday, February 19, 2015

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Discuss two questions for Wikigender and partners

Posted: 18 Feb 2015 08:23 AM PST

wikigender, beijing 20+, women, social media, strategyAdvancing women's rights through social media: which strategies?

Wikigender and partners would like to invite you to participate in a new online discussion on "Advancing women's rights through social media: which strategies?" closing on 20 February 2015.

With the support of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development and in partnership with UN Women, the OECD Development Centre is organising a side event during the 59th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) on "Advancing women's rights since Beijing: making women's voices heard in the post-2015 agenda through social media".

In the lead up to that event, Wikigender has been running an online discussion to discuss effective strategies for advancing women's rights through social media. The ensuing report will synthesise the discussion and be distributed at the event.

You can still participate – until 5pm on 20 February.

In recent years, social media has arisen as a powerful tool for online communities to raise awareness and mobilise campaigns on a wide range of issues.

Women's voices – whether individual or collective – have proven to be fundamental to advance women's rights at national and international levels.

In particular, social media has become essential for women's rights groups to push for greater accountability and action on gender equality.

Women increasingly take part in different social media outlets – including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest – and use them as avenues to raise awareness, discuss policies or mobilise campaigns on gender equality.

Grassroots women's networks have resulted in changes in laws and norms as seen in the last few years in India, Kenya and Niger.

However, a lot more needs to be done for women's voices from civil society to be more ‘visible’ in decision-making processes.

This online discussion opens the debate on how new media can broaden the scope for action on women's rights and gender equality within a post- 2015 agenda.

We would like to hear from you about your experience and challenges in using social media in this respect and to exchange views regarding:

1. Which strategies are the most efficient to make women's voices heard in the post-2015 agenda using interactive platforms and social media tools?

2. How can such tools be better harnessed to be more effective in achieving substantive and lasting equality?

To participate, simply type your comment here.

If you want to insert a URL hyperlink, please make sure you shorten the URL first e.g. using bitly, google url shorterner, tiny url etc before posting it, otherwise it may not work.

Thanks.

New LGBTI helpline and resource for Scotland

Posted: 18 Feb 2015 07:44 AM PST

LGBTI helpline, rape crisis scotland‘We want to highlight the fact that our support is fully inclusive, and able to respond to all survivors.’

From 19 February, Rape Crisis Scotland will be offering a specialist support service on the national helpline for LGBTI survivors of sexual violence, and their friends and families.

This will complement existing services and offer LGBTI survivors an additional opportunity to seek support responsive to their experiences from specially trained support workers.

Rape Crisis Scotland's national co-ordinator, Sandy Brindley, said: "We know that LGBTI survivors can experience unique stresses following sexual violence, which can make it even more difficult to report what has happened to them or to come forward and seek help.

"With our new resources and helpline service, Rape Crisis Scotland is taking proactive steps to overcome these barriers, and we want to highlight the fact that our support is fully inclusive, and able to respond to all survivors, whatever their gender identity or sexual orientation."

LGBTI survivors can call the Rape Crisis Scotland helpline at any time, but highlighting particular hours in this way is intended to offer an additional opportunity for survivors to seek support in the confident knowledge that Rape Crisis Scotland is able to respond to their needs and understands that gender identity and sexual orientation can be a major factor in the way survivors experience the impact of abuse.

The new service will operate on Mondays and Thursdays between 7pm and midnight.

The number to call is 08088 01 03 02.

Rape Crisis Scotland has also produced a new resource for LGBTI survivors, which is available in both print and digital formats.

This new leaflet was developed in consultation with LGBTI survivors and partner organisations Scottish Transgender Alliance, LGBT Youth Scotland, and LGBT Health & Wellbeing.

It outlines in detail the particular challenges LGBTI survivors may face, and gives them information on what they can expect if they seek support from Rape Crisis Scotland.

The new LGBTI resource is the first of its kind in Scotland. To read it, click here.

The new service and this resource are among many steps Rape Crisis Scotland is currently taking as it works towards receiving an LGBT Charter Mark – an indication that an organisation has trained staff and put in place all necessary steps to ensure that its services and resources are fully inclusive and able to respond sensitively and appropriately to the needs of the LGBTI community.

James Morton, of the Scottish Transgender Alliance, said: "Rape Crisis Scotland's new resource and helpline service are really important ways of reassuring LGBTI people that they will receive inclusive and empathetic support.

"Our research indicates that trans people are at particular risk of sexual assault as a form of transphobic hate crime and often fear further humiliation if they seek help.

"Feelings of shame about having bodies which vary from societal expectations can hinder intersex people from seeking help.

"Rape Crisis Scotland’s work demonstrating their awareness of these issues will hopefully encourage more survivors to reach out for support.”

Brandi-Lee Lough Dennell, of LGBT Youth Scotland, said: "LGBT Youth Scotland welcomes the publication of the LGBTI Survivors of Sexual Violence resource.

"Since lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are often missing from public messages on abuse and violence, they may not recognise their experiences as abusive.

"This resource includes important information on concerns relevant to LGBT people and makes it clear to those who have experienced sexual violence that they will be understood and supported."

The Rape Crisis Scotland helpline is open from 6pm to midnight, seven days a week on 08088 01 03 02. ‎

If you have any enquiries about the new resource and service you can contact Sandie Barton on 0141 331 4187 or Eileen Maitland on 0141 331 4181 or send an email.

In an emergency, dial 999.

Scheme shows up extent of domestic abuse

Posted: 18 Feb 2015 03:43 AM PST

stop violence against women, clare's law, disclosure scheme, Disclosure scheme used to uncover the violent pasts of more than 1,300 partners in just one year.

More than 1,300 violent partners have had their abusive pasts exposed thanks to a new law allowing police to disclose a partner's previous violent behaviour.

Officially called the ‘Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme’, it is more widely known as Clare's Law – after Clare Wood, who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2009.

Figures obtained by the Press Association have revealed how the scheme is already being used extensively – after just one year.

Clare's Law was rolled out in England and Wales in March 2014, after a 14-month pilot in Gwent, Wiltshire, Nottinghamshire and Greater Manchester.

Using Freedom of Information laws, the Press Association discovered that partners in England and Wales had applied for information under Clare's Law 3,760 times.

Of those applications, at least 1,335 resulted in disclosures of information about a partner's violent past.

This shows not only that the law is being used, but also the scale of domestic violence in England and Wales.

The Press Association also enquired about another measure, known as domestic violence protection orders (DVPOs). These can be used to protect victims by preventing the perpetrator from contacting them.

The DVPO figures revealed that courts have already granted 2,220 DVPOs – although they were only rolled out nationally in March 2014 following a one-year pilot in West Mercia, Wiltshire and Greater Manchester.

Clare Wood was murdered six years ago. She was strangled and set on fire by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton at her home in Salford, Greater Manchester. Appleton, who was from Salford, was found hanged in a derelict pub six days after her death.

What she had not known was that Appleton had a history of violence towards women and was known to prowl online dating websites and Facebook in search of partners, often using different aliases.

She had, however, made several complaints to police about George Appleton before her death

Her father, Michael Brown, has taken a degree of comfort from the law change that resulted from his daughter's death.

"We didn't have the lofty ambitions to do away with domestic violence, that would have been nonsensical," said the 71 year-old from Pontefract, but he does have great hopes for the new law.

"This is just people that are coming to the fore," he said.

"This is only the tip of the iceberg. There's an awful lot of it not reported, people are frightened to come forward.

"This is what it is in just the first year, all these people know about Clare's Law, they're going to tell another five, another dozen, and next year this is going to snowball."

Hopefully this is another way for police and victims to fight domestic violence.

But the statistics on the problem remain very sobering.

There were 269,700 domestic abuse-related crimes in England and Wales between 2012 and 2013, the report said, and 77 women killed by their partners or ex-partners in the same period.

And on average the police receive an emergency call relating to domestic violence every 30 seconds and around 8 per cent of recorded crime is made up of abuse in the home.

Polly Neate, chief executive of the charity Women's Aid said: "It's important that the police have all the right tools at their disposal to respond to perpetrators of domestic violence, but what's even more important is that they use them appropriately.

"Any woman asking for a disclosure under Clare's Law is clearly already concerned about her relationship, and should be referred to a specialist service so she can get support with her concerns, even if no disclosure can be made."

She added: "The recent HMIC report into the police shows failings in the basic attitudes and responses officers have to domestic violence, which is why we're urging every force to provide specialist training for all officers in domestic violence, to create a culture change that will create an effective police response to domestic violence."

Clare’s Law does not apply in Northern Ireland. A pilot scheme is being run in Scotland.