Thursday, April 30, 2015

Women's Views on News

Women's Views on News

Renewed call for Istanbul Convention for UK

Posted: 29 Apr 2015 09:21 AM PDT

petition, icchange, David Cameron, Women's Aids, violence against women, Istanbul ConventionTo prevent violence against women; protect women who are experiencing violence and prosecute perpetrators of violence.

On 8 June 2012 the UK government signed the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, called the Istanbul Convention, and in doing so promised to get serious about ending violence against women.

Or so it seemed.

Promised a law that would dramatically change the lives of all women in the UK.

A law to prevent violence against women; protect women who are experiencing violence and prosecute perpetrators of violence.

Signing was seen to be the UK saying it had the intention of complying in the future.

What signing didn't mean was that the Convention had at that point any legal status in the UK. It has to be ratified. And by ratifying it the UK government would be legally bound to comply with the Convention.

But despite the signing, and despite Prime Minister David Cameron's previous assurances to the contrary, he confirmed in March 2015 that the coalition government would not be ratifying the Convention in Parliament before the general election on 7 May.

Cameron was responding to a letter from Women’s Aid, supported by over 35 organisations, calling for the UK government to now ratify the Istanbul Convention.

But Women's Aid chief executive Polly Neate received a reply from him on 18 March confirming that the coalition government would not ratify the Istanbul Convention before the 7 May 2015 elections.

Responding in turn to the Prime Minister, Women's Aid said that although they recognised the progress and commitment the UK government has made in tackling and preventing domestic violence, they were very disappointed that, despite a commitment in January 2014 from the Prime Minister, his government has not prioritised the legislative changes needed to ratify the Convention in Parliament.

Since signing the Istanbul Convention, the UK government has made gradual changes to UK law to comply with the Istanbul Convention, including Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), forced marriage and currently they are working on Coercive Control – or psychological abuse.

But these efforts to prevent violence against women and girls are inadequate: services providing survivors with protection and support are in crisis, and our prosecution system is failing survivors.

And until the government has ratified the Istanbul Convention, it doesn't have to tackle these problems because it is currently under no legal obligation to meet all of its requirements. It can just pick and choose which parts of the Convention it wants to focus on.

Speaking in March, Polly Neate, chief executive of Women's Aid, said: "By failing to uphold its commitment and deciding to pass the baton on to the next government, the current Government has missed an opportunity to protect the human rights of women in the UK."

A campaign called #ICChange is now calling on the next UK government to ratify the Istanbul Convention on violence against women and girls as a matter of urgency.

ICchange is calling on all Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) to pledge to be champions for the Istanbul Convention (IC) on Violence against Women and Domestic Violence if they are elected.

Being an ICchampion means committing to do all they can, if elected, to ensure that the UK government ratifies the Istanbul Convention as soon as possible – so that women and girls in the UK can live free from the threat of violence.

Please e-mail or tweet your local candidates with the ICchampion pledge and ask them to commit to ending violence against women.

You can send them this ICchampion briefing to fill them on the campaign and why it's important.

The more of us that do it, the more likely they will be to pledge. And the more who pledge, the more likely the IC will become law. Let the campaign know how it goes via Twitter or by sending a message.

You can find your Conservative Party Prospective Candidates here; your Labour Party Prospective Candidates here; your Liberal Democrat Prospective Candidates here; your Green Party Prospective Candidates here; your SNP Prospective Candidates here and your UKIP Prospective Candidates here.

To find out which constituency you live in, click here.

Rape Crisis national spokeswoman Katie Russell said: “The government itself estimates that, in England and Wales alone, 85,000 women per year – equivalent to 233 per day – are raped and well over 400,000 are sexually assaulted; one in five women in England and Wales has experienced some form of sexual violence since the age of 16.

"And these figures do not include the vast but harder to quantify numbers of younger women and girls who are subjected to sexual violence each year, month, week and day across the UK.

"In recent years, high profile cases in Rochdale, Oxfordshire, Rotherham and elsewhere have highlighted the sexual exploitation and abuse of thousands of girls,” she continued.

"At the same time, through our frontline work at Rape Crisis we know that still more girls are raped and sexually abused within their own homes, and in other settings where they should feel safe, by adult men who often responsible for their care, who they have trusted and even loved.

"Yet the majority of these women and girl survivors of sexual violence, whether recent or some time in the past, do not have access to a local specialist Rape Crisis service.

"In light of all of this,” she said, “it is a matter of urgency that the British Government, whoever it comprises, signals its commitment to tackling violence against women and girls in all its forms by ratifying the Istanbul Convention (IC) at its earliest opportunity after the General Election on 7th May.

"The minimum standards for action in relation to the prevention, protection, prosecution, and provision of specialist services set out in the IC offer a starting point for action and change that has never been more clearly or more desperately needed.

"For these reasons, Rape Crisis England & Wales is pleased and proud to be a supporter of the #ICchange campaign.”

And as Polly Neate said in March: "We urge the next Government to make ratifying the Istanbul Convention an urgent priority and show leadership in addressing domestic violence."

You can follow @ICChange on Twitter; Tweet with the hashtag #ICChange

To visit the #ICChange website click here and to find the online petition to sign and share click here.

Video campaign tackles tube harassment

Posted: 29 Apr 2015 08:28 AM PDT

report it to stop it, sexual assault, public transport, TfL"Report it to Stop it" campaign to help prevent sexual harassment on London's public transport.

Transport for London (TfL), as the organisation in charge of a large part of the city’s public transport system is called, have taken another step in their Project Guardian initiative, which began in 2013, to tackle unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport.

A 2013 survey found that 15 per cent of women and girls have experienced sexual harassment on London's public transport, but only one in ten of them reported it.

Project Guardian, a collaboration between TFL and the police, with The Everyday Sexism Project, the End Violence Against Women coalition and Hollaback! London offering advice, saw officers given special training on how to deal with sexual harassment.

The new "Report it to Stop it" campaign, launched earlier this month, aims to encourage women to report sexual harassment whenever it happens.

TFL have released a hard-hitting video which highlights the kind of behaviour women have to deal with on the tube, in an attempt to persuade women that no incident which makes someone uncomfortable is "too trivial" to be reported.

The video shows a man harassing a woman on the tube, in a way that will be familiar to many female viewers.

The man's behaviour escalates, from an inital stare to following to touching ans rubbing himself against the woman, and at each step the viewer is asked if this is the point at which they would report what was happening if it happened to them.

But will an increase in reporting mean a decrease in unwanted sexual behaviour?

According to the campaign's website, "there is often a pattern to offenders' behaviour, so your information could lead to an arrest when added to other reports."

TfL also claims an increase of over 30 per cent in the number of suspects caught  so far.

This is encouraging to see, and it's certainly positive to see the police and TfL taking this issue seriously.

Far too many women are put off reporting any kind of sexual offences to the police because they fear that they won't be believed or the incident taken seriously.

But sexual harassment on public transport must be seen as a symptom of a wider problem; women will continue to be abused in public and in their homes until we change the attitudes and the behaviour of men.

Celebrating key roles of each generation

Posted: 29 Apr 2015 06:58 AM PDT

European Day of Solidarity between GenerationsRather than focusing on the negative challenges of ageing consider the opportunities.

AGE Platform Europe, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union (COFACE), Eurochild, the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) and the European Youth Forum have united to celebrate the European Day of Solidarity between Generations and raise awareness of the need to address Europe’s demographic challenge by adapting the way our societies function to enhance intergenerational links’ in the context of an ageing Europe’.

They remember the key role each generation plays – and should be empowered to play – to ensure a sustainable future for all of us in Europe, whatever one’s age.

And they point out that enhanced solidarity between the different age groups can help combat age stigmatisation and achieve the EU’s goal of promoting active and healthy ageing as a response to Europe’s demographic challenge.

It could also help address other societal challenges, such as gender equality, work-life balance, youth unemployment, and rising care needs.

Promoting intergenerational solidarity means more than bringing together children and older people on occasional circumstances, it is about creating supportive economic and social environments which naturally foster exchange and cooperation across generations in our everyday lives and value the contribution of all age groups in society.

This means rethinking our economic and social policies so as to mainstream intergenerational solidarity and cooperation in all areas of our lives and ultimately create age-friendly environments that make it possible for citizens of all ages to take part in society, contribute and support each other.

Demographic ageing is strongly affecting the relationships among generations and the way European societies function.

Rather than focusing on the negative challenges of ageing, such as its impact on the increased pension and health care expenditure or on the shrinking labour force, demographic reality should be looked at as an opportunity, which can bring solutions to many current economic and social challenges, therefore requires a new assessment and reworking of several economic and social polities within society.

AGE is leading a campaign in order to bring more intergenerational fairness and social justice in this debate at EU level, national and local level.

The aim of its campaign is to achieve an Age-Friendly EU by 2020.

Speaking about solidarity between the enerations, AGE Platform Europe‘s secretary-general, Anne-Sophie Parent, said; “Longer life expectancy is an achievement we can only be proud of if age is no longer a barrier to one’s inclusion and participation in social and economic lives,"

"Creating age-friendly environments that break down this barrier and make it natural for people of all ages to meet and support each other is, according to AGE members, a prerequisite to ensure the sustainability of our European societies."

Using the opportunity offered by the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Health Ageing (EIP AHA), AGE also set up and moderates – as part of the AFE-INNOVNET project – an EU virtual forum on Age-Friendly Environments (AFE) to link stakeholders such as public authorities, NGOs, service providers, industry, and researchers interested in the promotion of AFE at local, regional, national and EU level.

One of the 'best practise' approaches to age is the UK's ‘The Age of No Retirement?‘, which promotes age-positive social change in the UK

‘The Age of No Retirement?’ – ‘a national debate about the opportunities in a society where we live longer’ – is a collaborative movement for age-positive social change in the United Kingdom, which was launched in London in October 2013.

It brought together employers, policy makers, innovators, designers, academics and citizens of all ages willing to create a society without age barriers, where skills, capabilities, knowledge and wisdom are valued whatever your age.

‘The Age of No Retirement?’ focuses on doing things differently, namely by:

adopting a design-led innovative approach to everything they do – capturing people’s imaginations and inspiring engagement and positive action;

providing a collective space for all organisations to share their age-positive stories and learn from each other’s social, personal and economic impacts; and

building on work already done and co-design project prototypes for rapid implementation – within the workplace, within communities.

The movement has been organising a number of seminars to explore and discuss the opportunities that the increase in life expectancy could mean for everyone – in work, in education, in the communities, and in society as a whole.

From 27-29 April 2015 an event in Manchester, for example, called ‘Exploring the value within a society where people are living longer’, focussed on four themes: the inter-/multi-generational approach of communication and productivity, adapted design, whole-life perspective approach, and longer working careers, and 600 participants form 300 organisations were expected to take part.

“The social impacts of the economic crisis can be mitigated by investing in intergenerational solidarity and learning,” Jana Hainsworth, Secretary General of Eurochild said.

“For a stronger Europe in the future, the various generations – young and old – need the opportunity to learn from each other and with each other.”

This, she said, would not only help them to develop skills but also actively contribute to a truly age-friendly Europe.

Johanna Nyman, President of the European Youth Forum, said her organisation was delighted to mark the EU Day of solidarity between generations.

“Recent times have been tough for young people, but other age groups have suffered too and it is only through working together that we can improve the lives of everyone, no matter what their age, in Europe.

“Each generation can learn from, as well as teach, others,” she said, adding; “and so taking opportunities to create solidarity between generations and tackling the ‘us versus them’ rhetoric is vital!”

Joanna Maycock, Secretary General of the European Women’s Lobby pointed out that solidarity between generations was necessary to creating a new vision for the future and providing sustainable solutions to the current social, economic and demographic crisis.

“A gender-equal and sustainable model for society, in which equal sharing of economic resources across generations and equal caring for each other, are fundamental principles.

“Strengthening and listening to women’s voices across the generations is crucial to this process,” she added.

“Family remains the main source of intergenerational solidarity,” COFACE’s president, Annemie Drieskens, said, and called for family policies providing for resources, time and services to be implemented in EU Member States.

“Leaving family carers to provide all the care for dependent elderly people undermines the social inclusion, health and gender equality of these families.”