Women's Views on News |
- UK MEPs support Khalida Jarrar letter
- Dark times for NI women’s sector
- Trans manifesto: clear core issues
| UK MEPs support Khalida Jarrar letter Posted: 14 Apr 2015 10:19 AM PDT
Molly Scott Cato and Jill Evans are among the 58 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who have signed a letter to High Representative Federica Mogherini strongly condemning what they call 'the latest Israeli escalation against Palestinian legislators and the suppression of the Palestinian political leadership', namely the arrest of Khalida Jarrar. Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the Palestinian representative on the Council of Europe, a prominent feminist and an advocate for the rights of Palestinian political prisoners. She was arrested after a raid on her family home in Ramallah on 2 April, almost seven months after an Israeli military court attempted to forcibly transfer her, on 20 August 2014, from her home in Ramallah to Jericho. That move was a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and was widely condemned around the world, including by Members of the European Parliament. Jarrar is also a member of the Palestinian National Follow-Up Commission for the International Criminal Court. And her arrest, the letter says, is a clearly political attempt to undermine Palestinian leadership and thwart Palestinian attempts to pursue justice in the International Criminal Court (ICC). She has been sentenced to 6 months of "administrative detention" – which means she is being held without charge and without trial, and her detention can be extended indefinitely. Jarrar is now one of nine members of the Palestinian Legislative Council held without charge or trial under administrative detention orders. Support for her freedom continues to grow: the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights addressed her case; Amnesty International has issued an urgent appeal about her detention; Human Rights Watch has published a bulletin on her case; CODEPINK sent an action alert, while in France and in Brazil, more political parties and organisations have expressed their support for her freedom. In addition to the patent injustice and illegality of this sentencing, there is widespread concern about her detention because of her health needs – she has suffered a series of strokes and has high blood pressure, and requires medication and monitoring for both conditions. The Israeli practice of administrative detention has been condemned on numerous occasions by the UN Human Rights Office and the Human Rights Committee that oversees implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Israel has ratified. And yesterday a spokesperson said the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) expressed concern by the continued and increasing use of administrative detention by Israeli authorities against Palestinians, who are being held without charge or trial, often on the basis of secret evidence, for periods of up to six months. The OHCHR has reiterated its call on Israel to end its practice of administrative detention and to either release without delay or to promptly charge all the reported 242 administrative detainees and prosecute them with all the judicial guarantees required by international human rights law. The British company G4S provides security and screening equipment at military checkpoints, the controversial Ofer prison, and a police station in the West Bank, according to a report in the Financial Times, although G4S said that it will end all its Israeli prison contracts after an annual general meeting was severely disrupted by human rights protesters.  |
| Dark times for NI women’s sector Posted: 14 Apr 2015 08:52 AM PDT
The services women's centres in Northern Ireland provide are aimed at helping women build confidence, gain new skills for employment or training, provide advice in a safe and secure environment, and offer counselling in addition to providing quality childcare for children all in some of the most disadvantaged wards in Northern Ireland. These services are now under threat, as the whole of the community and voluntary sector face disastrous cuts as government departments slash their budgets disproportionately upon the whole sector. Speaking to WomensViewsOnNews (WVoN), Lynn Carvill, chief executive of Women's TEC, the largest quality provider of training for women in non-traditional skills, said: "There is little doubt that the community and voluntary sector in NI is facing dark times. "Severe budget cuts implemented by government departments are having a serious impact in relation to job losses and reduced service provision across the sector." This view is echoed by the director of the Women's Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) Anne McVicker. WRDA launched a petition to protest recent decisions taken by the Department for Employment and Learning on the European Social Fund (ESF) criteria, saying the three new restrictions on the community and voluntary sector will make it impossible for many groups to apply for funding and restrict what can be offered by those still eligible. Commenting to WVoN on the department’s action, McVicker said: "For decades the women's sector in Northern Ireland has provided women with a community based approach to quality education, these programmes provide increased skills that lead to employment opportunities. "What the department have done here amounts to a cull of the community and voluntary sector education and training programmes, it is women and those living in poverty who rely on local community initiatives, that will suffer worst." The holistic nature of women's centres is important to their success in reaching women and children in disadvantaged areas. Any cut to funding could jeopardise important work and reduce the positive outcomes for women and children who use the services. One such service which has seen a slash of £2 million is the Early Year's budget from the Department of Education – and if proposals go ahead this could mean up to 177 jobs go, and 153 playgroups close. This means 2,500 children from disadvantaged areas no longer receiving a service which is vital to their development. Disadvantaged children suffer from poorer outcomes and the consequences of childhood disadvantage cannot and should not be under estimated. Disadvantage, including poverty, is associated with poorer cognitive, educational and behavioural child development. Early intervention and the provision of early year's services are crucial to pre-school education. Another pressure on women's centres is the funding of their advice services. A number of key funders now require centres to open up their advice services to men in order to secure any funding at all. This is clearly a worrying trend. Women seeking advice can be faced with a number of barriers. Personal barriers are probably the most common, where feelings of embarrassment, humiliation, lack of confidence and low self esteem can easily have a disabling effect. Accessibility to advice services can also be an issue, particularly for women with children, women who have disabilities, women who are elderly, women who are carers, women who are in work or women from minority ethnic backgrounds. Accessibility incorporates a number of factors, including the appointment system, the restricted times of opening, the waiting time to get an appointment, the physical access to the building, its location, whether it is accessible by public transport, interpreting services and childcare requirements. Women who access advice services from the community based women's centres do so because these barriers have been removed. Women's centres advice services deal with gender specific issues, delivered in the heart of communities and developed by local women in response to local need. A recent briefing by the Women's Support Network on women-only advice noted a 'regional undersupply of, and associated unmet demand for, such women-only provision that cut across rural, urban and town sites.' The relative fortunes of the women's sector will suffer disproportionally as further funding cuts are implemented, and the women's sector, women-only advice services and the community and voluntary sector as a whole play a critical role in the lives of women, families and the community. It is vital therefore that we all continue to give the government clear messages about the need for and value of such services. Women continually fight for equality between women and men, despite the many legislative measures aimed at eliminating gender discrimination. And now women have to fight for equality between government departments protecting their own funding pots and the community and voluntary sector protecting services to the most vulnerable in Northern Ireland. Lynn Carvill again: "The immediacy of the impact is hugely concerning and would lead me to believe there is a worrying lack of strategic oversight in relation to the provision of vital community services across the region. Of course the cuts are having a detrimental impact on the women's sector. "In a society that is still emerging from conflict, where women's voices remain muted in their communities, the implementation of these cuts will result in silencing women at a crucial time in our ongoing Peace Process. "It is difficult to make any sense of what is an ad hoc approach to shrinking the sector and the services provided."  |
| Trans manifesto: clear core issues Posted: 14 Apr 2015 03:07 AM PDT
Trans issues have been gaining increasing coverage in the British media over recent years. This mirrors increasing political debate over trans rights, including the Equality Act 2010, evidence presented at the Leveson Inquiry and the debates over same-sex marriage. The Westminster government issued the first ever Transgender Action Plan in 2011 and many politicians were contacted regarding press coverage of trans people following the suicide of Lucy Meadows in 2013. The idea of a trans manifesto was first raised in discussions with Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green politicians during the summer of 2013, and the idea was enthusiastically received. Accordingly a number of trans groups met in the autumn, and three core statements were unanimously agreed: 1. Respect trans people as equal citizens with equal rights. There is a feeling that trans peoples' rights are sometimes subsidiary to those enjoyed by others. The passing of same-sex marriage legislation means that trans people who married in England, Scotland and Wales no longer need to end their marriage should they wish to seek gender recognition. However in England and Wales the process requires the written consent of the spouse — the so-called spousal veto. Married trans people in Northern Ireland still have to end their marriage prior to gender recognition. The Equality Act seemed to reverse some of the protections previously enjoyed by trans people, with some controversial exemptions specified. 2. Empower trans individuals to be authorities on all aspects of their own lives. Provision of healthcare to enable trans people to transition to their new gender has been enshrined in case law since 1997, but many see the NHS process, usually provided through Gender Identity Clinics, as demeaning. The process of gender recognition requires medical reports, meaning that many have no alternative to the NHS process. However recent statements from NHS leaders indicate an acceptance that people who live with long-term conditions, such as gender dysphoria, quickly become experts with knowledge that matches or even exceeds that of medics. The gender recognition process also indicates that the state owns your gender, with trans people having to convince the state to change it. Those who don't see themselves as male or female (non-binary people) are also becoming more visible, but those two genders remain the only ones recognised in law and in government statistics and documents. 3. Develop diverse, representative, realistic and positive portrayals of trans individuals. Trans people feel that media coverage has often been exploitative and sensational, rather than reflecting their real lives or issues that they face. Representations of trans women dominate, leading to the relative invisibility of trans men and non-binary people. Government could take a lead in de-exoticising trans people by including images of and stories from trans people in publications that don't necessarily have any trans focus. While two specific requests have been made, the real hope is that politicians of all parties will subscribe to a paradigm shift in the way trans people are viewed. By ensuring that all policy decisions are viewed through these three statements, the inequalities that trans people still face (including but not restricted to family law, immigration, education, employment and healthcare) will start to be naturally eliminated. The intention has never been that trans people should have more rights than anyone else, but instead have the same rights that others take for granted. Groups supporting this initiative include: a:gender, CliniQ, Focus Northern Ireland, FTM London, Gendered Intelligence, GIRES, LGBT Consortium, National Trans Police Association, Scottish Transgender Alliance, The Gender Trust, Trans Bare All, Transforum Manchester, Trans London, Trans Media Watch and Unique. Campaigners for trans rights are calling on all general election candidates to support the three principles underpinning the Trans Manifesto.  |
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