Women's Views on News |
| Talk on progress of global summit Posted: 03 Mar 2015 04:24 AM PST
Leading academics will be debating the global impact of wartime sexual violence at a high profile event at Plymouth University on 4 March with the title Wartime sexual violence: understanding, representing and intervening. The free public debate will include discussion about the ongoing plight of the women, children and men affected by such violence, and current international humanitarian efforts to help them. The Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI) was launched in May 2012 by the former UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague and the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie. Its stated aim was to 'address the culture of impunity that exists for crimes of sexual violence in conflict, increase the number of perpetrators held to account, and ensure better support for survivors'. The UK then hosted a Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June 2014, the aim of which was to raise more awareness of this campaign and increase the political will of states worldwide to do more about prevention. The Summit was presented and celebrated as the largest gathering of heads of states and country representatives ever brought together on the subject. The PSVI has also included diplomatic action to secure UN Security Council Resolutions, ensured the creation of a group of experts and international protocol on investigating and documenting sexual violence, and seen the recent creation of a research centre on 'Women, Peace, and Security'. At this event on 4 March three leading scholars who are currently working on gender and conflict will critically reflect on the progress that has been made in preventing sexual violence in conflict through presentations and a question and answer session. And as well questioning the PSVI from a policy standpoint, the speakers will address its relationship to wider questions of gender equality, humanitarian intervention, and the representation of sexual violence in popular culture. Because at stake is not just how we deal with sexual violence in post-conflict contexts, but how we generate knowledge about sexual violence in post-conflict contexts in the first place. The speakers are Dr Victoria Basham, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Exeter; Dr Paul Kirby, Lecturer in International Security at the University of Sussex; and Dr Laura Mcleod, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester. Dr Victoria Basham’s primary research interests lie at the intersections of critical approaches to security, feminist international relations, and international political sociology. Much of her work draws on feminist and Foucauldian social theory to examine how identity markers such as gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality and social class, shape the prioritisation, use and perpetration of military force and security practices in liberal democratic societies. Basham’s first research monograph, War, Identity and the Liberal State: Everyday Experiences of the Geopolitical was published with Routledge in 2013. She is also the editor of Critical Military Studies. Dr Paul Kirby lectures on gender and the politics of war in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex. He was awarded his PhD from the Department of International Relations at the LSE in 2012 for a thesis on different ways of explaining wartime sexual violence in feminist and gender theory, with a particular emphasis on atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is currently working on the UK government’s Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative and its relationship to questions of gender equality, security and ethical foreign policy. An article on these issues is forthcoming in International Studies Perspectives. His work has also been published in the European Journal of International Relations, International Feminist Journal of Politics, and Men and Masculinities. He is currently co-editor of European Journal of International Relations and a founding contributor at The Disorder of Things. Dr Laura Mcleod's research interests include gender, feminism and security in post-conflict contexts. Her current research asks about how we 'know' gender in peacebuilding, concentrating upon ways in which 'gender knowledge' is produced in relation to affective and aesthetic practices. In this way, she seeks to understand why gender policy in post-conflict contexts is configured in particular ways, opening up possibilities for rethinking the questions that we ask about gender mainstreaming in peacebuilding processes. Her first book, Gender Politics and Security Discourse, will shortly be published by Routledge. Speaking about the event, its organiser, Dr Christian Emery, Lecturer in International Relations at Plymouth University, said: "This is a challenging issue but one that will have increasing importance for the UK, both in terms of developing an ethical foreign policy and overseas humanitarian efforts, but also the ongoing impact at home resulting from refugees coming from war-torn and post-conflict nations. "The global summit did go some way towards mobilising greater political will to do more to prevent sexual violence in conflict zones and bring perpetrators to justice. "At the same time the public are becoming aware of this issue through rolling news and films such as Unwatchable, [In] The Land of Blood and Honey, and Grbavica. "Some of these representations are problematic, however, and at stake therefore is not just how we deal with sexual violence in post-conflict contexts but how we generate knowledge about it in the first place and what that reveals about attitudes to gender equality at home and abroad.”  |
| Fifty shades shop posters taken down Posted: 03 Mar 2015 04:10 AM PST
Child's Eye Line UK is celebrating after shopping centres across the UK have agreed to remove Ann Summers window displays featuring bondage imagery. Shopping centres in Wimbledon, Sutton, Milton Keynes, Eastbourne and all Intu shopping centres in the UK removed their 50 Shades of Grey themed window display posters after campaigners complained they were not appropriate as they could be seen in children's eye line. Child's Eye Line UK campaigns to protect children from sexualisation and commercialisation "We are delighted that so many shopping centres have agreed to make their centres more family-friendly," Child's Eye Line UK’s founder Kathy McGuinness said. "Sexualised imagery should not be displayed on the high street. It's great to see retailers acting responsibly and listening to parents' concerns. "We hope that other shopping centres and high streets will follow their lead to protect children from sexualised imagery in family-friendly places." The government issued guidelines in 2012 saying that sexualised imagery should not be displayed where children can see them, following ‘the Bailey Review‘, called "Letting children be children", was published in 2011. These guidelines were reinforced by the Children's Commissioner's report 2013 which concluded that "exposure to sexualised imagery is damaging to children's development, relationships and self esteem and makes risky sexual behaviour more likely." When Child's Eye Line UK met the Minister for Crime Prevention, Norman Baker MP, in July 2014, he confirmed that retailers who display sexualised images at child height are "not observing current legislation in relation to the Indecent Displays Act 1981." "Child's Eye Line UK's concerns about displays with inappropriate or indecent images or text are fully understood and I believe the problem lies with the retailers," Baker said in a letter to Child's Eye Line UK following that meeting at the Home Office. "I am grateful to the work of Child's Eye Line UK and I am particularly struck by the difficulties and resistance parents have been experiencing when seeking the cooperation of retailers who are often not observing current legislation." Baker wrote to the Prime Minister, David Cameron, in his role as Minister on Child's Eye Line UK's behalf and received a 'positive reply.' David Cameron referred him to the Bailey Review into the sexualisation of children, 'Letting Children Be Children', which made a series of recommendations that shops should 'ensure that sexualised images are not in easy sight of children.' Baker said that it is "vital that a robust approach to promoting the self-regulation is in place and that the Indecent Displays Act 1981 is able to provide for sufficient protection on matters raised by Child's Eye Line UK." Child's Eye Line UK has also received cross-party support at the Scottish Parliament. Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour MSP, and Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy, said that she was delighted with Child's Eye Line UK's success, and said: "All shoppers including children have the right to shop in a family-friendly environment." And campaign supporter Sharon had success with the Indecent Displays Act, 1981, and her local Ann Summers shop in Taunton. Sharon told Child's Eye Line UK: “After another visit to the police station yesterday with the ‘Indecent Displays Act‘ in hand, a really great chat to an officer there and a phone call by them to Ann Summers head office, I’ve been informed that the current display should be coming down within next couple of days. "Six other towns have also protested so far. Ann Summers said they had a contingency in place as they knew they were pushing the boundary on this one!!!! "Let that statement alone, be an encouragement to us all, to keep an eye on what’s going on around us, and to act when we do see something that is not in line with what’s best for our little ones.” Sharon has also written a great blog which addresses many of the reactions she and other campaigners face, from being called prudes to criticism from those that seem happy with or even encourage the normalisation of the sexualisation of children. There is also some great information about how to implement the Indecent Displays Act, 1981. Wanting to protect children from sexualisation has nothing to do with prudery – as most of us know.  |
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