Women's Views on News |
- Our scepticism and our own human rights
- Better support needed for women seeking asylum
- Fawcett Society gets new CEO
| Our scepticism and our own human rights Posted: 22 Apr 2015 09:59 AM PDT
By Rachel Krys. When compared to the women experiencing mass rape in Darfur, peace activists locked up and lashed in Saudi Arabia, or the torture and detention of dissidents in North Korea, the UK's record seems pretty good, as British politicians often boast. But there is a debate raging within the UK about the need for human rights protections at home, and an increasingly vocal lobby that wants Britain removed from the European Court of Human Rights' jurisdiction. Scepticism towards "human rights" at home is entrenched in our public discourse. Spend any time reading or watching the UK media’s coverage of human rights at home, and you'll find overwhelming emphasis on the negative. In a review of broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, political blogs and parliamentary speeches from 2013, for example, researchers found that only 30 per cent of content supported human rights protections in the UK. In England, that figure was under 20 per cent. Instead, the public human rights discourse in the UK focuses on a handful of controversial cases, rather than on how people use human rights ideas to challenge abuses and demand better public services. As a result, the media's portrayal of human rights as something for “other people” remains very entrenched. With such an overwhelmingly negative discourse, it's easy to assume that public opinion is in the same place. But research into what people really think about human rights reveals that about a quarter of people are steadfastly positive about them. This group isn't affected by the negative background noise, and even when exposed to the most vilifying story, remain convinced. Inevitably, a similarly sized group is robustly negative about human rights. This group is not swayed by any positive messages about human rights; their minds are made up. If you ignore the approximately 10 per cent of people who simply don't care at all, you find a much more interesting, and significant group. Around four in ten Brits are very much torn between the two poles of the human rights debate. The research finds that this group is generally positive about human rights in an abstract sense – they agree that rights create a fair society, help to protect people when they're vulnerable and see most rights as fundamental. However, they also agree with statements suggesting that human rights laws are not doing what they are supposed to do and that the laws are being abused. This group is by far the most sensitive to the way rights are framed, and in an environment where the discourse is so negative, this pulls them to a much more sceptical place. The research suggests that for many people in the UK, who fall into this 'undecided' group, their attitudes vary depending on how relevant they feel human rights are to their lives. It also matters how much they perceive human rights to be about fair treatment and due process. When people in this group hear messages that connect human rights to their everyday lives, they understand rights better and are more supportive of them overall. And this is where the challenge lies. Because although twenty per cent of the discourse is positive, it isn't telling the stories which we know will resonate with most people. When human rights organisations talk about the importance of the UK protections, they talk about their 'long tradition', they reference the Magna Carta and they worry about the UK's standing on the international stage. These are not the concerns of most people. Most people are worried about the abuse of older people in care homes, because they or their parents might be in one or can imagine heading there. So stories about old people challenging bad treatment, invasive decisions or the intrusion into their private and family life are bound to resonate. Violence against women, and the failure of the police to protect women from domestic violence is a growing concern, so sharing how human rights have helped families get justice are incredibly strong. Children who are failed by the system and people with mental health problems who are ignored and abused are not the cases that spring to mind for most people when they're asked to think about human rights. We need a new shorthand, because how the public feel about, and understand a law not only helps in how they use it, but also how they react when it's under threat. The challenge human rights defenders face in the UK now is to find new ways to reach the people who remain unconvinced. We know what's missing from the debate; we know what matters to people; now we have to start telling those stories. Rachel Krys is head of media and communications for Equally Ours, a partnership of eight UK charities raising awareness of how human rights benefit us all. A version of this article appeared in openDemocracy on 20 April.
 |
| Better support needed for women seeking asylum Posted: 22 Apr 2015 09:55 AM PDT
Imagine suffering at the hands of your husband, uncle, brother or father. Imagine being raped, beaten and subjugated by your country’s offcials, and having nowhere to turn, or being persecuted for your political beliefs. And imagine escaping. Imagine making an arduous, often treacherous journey to a better, safer place. And imagine the despair when you reach that place and you find that, apparently, the system there too couldn't care less, and in some instances is pitched against you from the start. Women who are seeking asylum in the UK are often not provided with adequate information on their rights when they arrive. Often they are required to recount their ordeals to male translators, or in front of their children, even if this involves describing appalling sexual or domestic violence. This means that they are less likely to predent their full story for their claim assessment – and risk being deported. The Protection Gap campaign, run by Asylum Aid, has been addressing these issues, and has so far seen some success – including a Home Office Women's Asylum Protection Plan. However, we still hear of incidents of mistreatment of women at detention centres like Yarl's Wood where women are reporting incidences of intimidation and violations of privacy by male staff. The recent Report of the Inquiry into the Use of Immigration Detention in the United Kingdom by the UK government’s All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Migration concluded that the UK 'uses detention disproportionately and inappropriately,' and that that detention of asylum seekers is 'seriously detrimental to the individuals who are detained in terms of their mental and physical well-being, as well as hugely costly to the taxpayer.' The report has recommended a maximum time limit of 28 days of detention, and the implementation of 'a robust system for receiving the decision to detain early in the period of detention'. It also recommends that decisions to detain should be very rare and detention should be for the shortest possible time and only to effect removal and that the Government should learn from international best practice and introduce a much wider range of alternatives to detention than are currently used in the UK. The proposed steps outlined by Asylum Aid, to give women seeking asylum the same rights as other women in order to facilitate accurate assessments, clearly fall within these recommendations. But there is still a long way to go. At grass roots level there are initiatives that provide much-needed support and aid for these women. Women for Refugee Women were recently able to take a small number of women refugees on a short respite break, and the Migrant Artists Mutual Aid (MAMA) choir, based in Liverpoo,l uses performance and art to raise awareness of women's experiences, and raise money for migrants in crisis. There are many small initiatives across the UK that are making big differences to many women. However, they are still small islands in a sea of apathy and real change is needed from the top for any significant difference to be made. Remarking on the inquiry during a House of Lords debate on the report last month, Baroness Ruth Lister said: 'What became clear during the inquiry was the disconnect between official policy and what actually happens. 'The current Home Office guidance that detention should be used sparingly and for the shortest possible period is rendered ineffective by working practices and culture.' And Baroness Sally Hamwee, who, with Lister, was on the inquiry panel, said: The case management model used in Sweden is based on early intervention and a welfare and rights framework. Individuals feel that they are given a fair hearing – and if they have to leave, they can make their own arrangements with dignity. ‘This inquiry has said to me, among other things, that one of the things that is most lacking is dignity.’  |
| Posted: 22 Apr 2015 09:52 AM PDT
Sam Smethers, who will join the Fawcett Society in August, will be moving from Grandparents Plus, where she has been chief executive since 2008. Under her leadership Grandparents Plus has championed the role that grandparents and the wider family play in children's lives, driving this issue up the agenda. She has ensured that the charity has taken a gendered approach, evidencing the way in which older women in particular provide intensive care and support for their grandchildren and families. In 2009 the charity achieved a major policy change to National Insurance credit to protect grandparent carers' Basic State Pension and more recently the exemption for grandparents and family carers from Universal Credit conditionality requirements, and the Labour Party policy announcement of transferable unpaid parental leave for grandparents. Smethers is no stranger to equalities work and issues, having worked for both the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. She is also no stranger to gender equality and membership organisations, as she served as a Fawcett trustee between 2007 and 2010. "The Fawcett Society has a long and proud history and I regard it as a privilege to be given the opportunity to work with the board, our membership and partners in the wider feminist and equalities sectors and beyond to take the charity to its next phase," Smethers said. "Fawcett wants to see a society where women and girls are safe, valued and respected and where women and men can fulfil their potential at home, at work and in public life. I look forward to playing my part in progressing this agenda." Welcoming Sam's appointment, Fawcett's chair, Belinda Phipps, said: "We are absolutely delighted that Sam has accepted our offer to come and work for Fawcett. "Sam is a dynamic and successful voluntary sector chief executive who also offers 14 years parliamentary, public affairs and communications experience and a track record of success. That really fits the bill for Fawcett, we are lucky to have her. "Although progress has been made towards greater equality between women and men, there is still so much to do. "The Fawcett Society will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2016 so Sam is joining us at a really exciting time for the organisation and for the campaign for gender equality."  |
| 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., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |