Women's Views on News |
| Posted: 01 Dec 2015 09:58 AM PST
Guess how many pairs of shoes were produced last year alone? 24 billion pairs of shoes – that’s roughly equivalent to 3 pairs of shoes for every single person living on the planet. Shoe production, like garment production, is an immense industry with significant global impact. Did you know the production of one pair of leather boots can require up 25,000 litres of water and 50 square meters of land? And that's not all. Systemic human rights abuses pervade shoe making, from poverty pay, long working hours and denial of trade union rights, to risks to workers' health and the environment through harmful chemicals and dyes. This may sound familiar. Unfortunately, there are far too many similarities between the footwear industry and the garment industry. This is why Labour Behind the Label has joined forces with global partners to launch the Change Your Shoes campaign. Shoe production is a growing global industry. The scale of the shoe industry is immense, with over 22 billion pairs of shoes produced in 2013 alone, 87 per cent of which were made in Asia. There is increasing demand from consumers in Europe and the USA, as well as in producer countries such as India and China. Systemic human rights abuses pervade the global shoe industry, from poverty pay, long working hours and denial of trade union rights to significant risks to workers' health and the environment through harmful chemicals and dyes. The shoe industry, very much like the garment industry, operates under a veil of secrecy. An almost total lack of transparency allows exploitation to continue apace with the growth of the industry. The main health and ecological problem of leather production and shoe manufacturing is the use of toxins in tanneries, of which chromium is the most dangerous. This highly toxic chemical is used in the process of tanning raw hides, the residue of which transfers to the waste water, causing harmful pollution to the environment and serious impacts on human health, including cancer, blindness, eczema and asthma. And the chromium salts used to tan leather mean there is the possibility that chromium endangers not only workers in tanneries, but also consumers worldwide. Two things you can do now: Download the Change Your Shoes app. It's free and takes only seconds. The app informs you about the shoe industry, sets out demands for change and allows you to record your steps in support of the petition – donating them for a virtual march to Brussels. Here are the Playstore and Applestore links. Sign up to a free conference. If you are near London, come along to the People's Meeting on 12 December in London. Change Your Shoes campaigners and supporters will be joined by experts in the field to explore and discuss potential changes that will make a meaningful difference to the lives of the millions of women employed to make and sell our clothes and shoes. Join debates, get training, and hear a worker from a Nike factory in Indonesia share her story.  |
| Posted: 01 Dec 2015 09:43 AM PST
A leading coalition of women's groups working to end all forms of violence against women and girls has marked ten years since it was founded by publishing a new report assessing the last decade of government policy and practice on violence against women and girls (VAWG). It also makes recommendations regarding the next steps that need to be taken on sexual and domestic violence, forced marriage, trafficking and sexual exploitation and online pornography. The report, 'Where are we now?', produced by the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW Coalition), finds that although the UK government in Westminster has a strong policy framework in place to address all forms of abuse and has taken considerable strides over the last decade, there are still critical frontline failings which mean women and girls are not safe. Life-saving support services in local communities, for example, are struggling to stay open due to lack of funding. And at a policy level, the refusal to make Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) compulsory in schools despite all the evidence of the need for this to prevent future abuse, is a major failing. The report highlights the – critically important – progress that has made over the last decade including: The Westminster government developing a joined up violence against women and girls strategy which sets out plans to address each form of abuse. This strategy is led from the Home Office and has been reported on and updated every year with high level ministerial attention; The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) adopted a pioneering violence against women and girls strategy in 2008 which has led to concrete measures to improve justice outcomes for rape and other forms of abuse; Rape crisis centres have received more support since 2010 than previously, although their funding situation is again precarious; There has been excellent Home Office work on addressing young people's attitudes to abuse, for example in the 'ThisIsAbuse' campaign; Action has been taken to implement some new regulation of harmful media images and the availability of online pornography; and The law has been changed to recognise 'coercive and controlling behaviour' as key to domestic violence. But 'Where are we now?' criticises the government for: Failing, to date, to ensure that support services for survivors or those at risk of abuse are secure. The report singles out localism and poor commissioning practices, combined with local government cuts, as to blame for the existential crisis now facing these services; The most recent Spending Review making commitments to some support for domestic violence services but not for rape crisis centres; Changes to legal aid, and potentially some welfare changes, which may be affecting women's safety; and Data collection on violence against women is still not good enough to permit a comprehensive analysis of 'who is doing what to whom' in order to develop better practice. It is also extremely disappointing that the national level work in this area still fails to address the most pervasive form of abuse, sexual harassment, and fails to address the known harms to women in prostitution. 'Where are we now?' makes five key recommendations to the government for stepping up the work to eradicate violence against women and girls in the UK: A new law to ensure women and girls get the support they need; Policy and practice to prevent violence in the first place; Consistent regulation of harmful media images; A coherent approach to tackling violence against women and girls overseas; and Local authorities to be required to develop local Violence Against Women and Girls Strategies. Bethan Cansfield, who is policy manager at Womankind Worldwide, addressed the UK government's policy towards women and girls overseas in recent years, policy delivered in particular by the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and Department for International Development (DfID). Cansfield, who also contributed to the report, said: "The UK government has significantly increased its focus on tackling violence against women and girls internationally – as we can see from the early and forced marriage, FGM and rape in war initiatives. "However, more work needs to be done to ensure funding reaches national and grassroots women's rights organisations. "These organisations are on the frontline delivering services to survivors of violence and tackling the root causes of abuse. And she pointed out that if the funding did not reach these organisations, the UK would not make the difference in women’s and girls’ lives that it could. Professor Liz Kelly, co-chair of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: "There is now a strong policy framework on violence against women and girls in place – which is a huge leap on from a decade ago, and all credit should go to the politicians and civil servants who have worked with the women’s sector to deliver this. "But conflicting policies undermine it constantly – localism and poor commissioning practices are decimating women's support services at a time when more women than ever before are seeking help. "Education policies fail to protect girls from abuse now and are not working towards the prevention of future abuse, as seen especially in the resistance to making Relationships and Sex Education compulsory. "The most marginalised women, including women in prostitution and asylum seeking women, have very few rights to protection and support." Marai Larasi, co-chair of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: "We must hold on to the vision of a society that has truly eradicated violence against women and girls, which is absolutely achievable. "David Cameron earlier this year said that the abuse of children is a 'national threat' and escalated police attention to it. “Strong political leadership on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls could truly make us safer." "If, as a society, we really cared about the survivors of abuse, we would ensure that there was enough support available across our communities so that they could seek support at any time. "This is not happening and these services are now precarious and using up their reserves." Imkaan, the national network of black and ethnic minority (BME) women's support organisations, recently published a report revealing the extremely serious funding crisis facing BME women's support services. If some BME women are unable to access a support service which understands their specific needs they will be in more danger. "The EVAW Coalition report says it is time for a new law which recognises the value and necessity of these services by requiring them to be provided and no longer invisible 'Cinderella' services," Larasi – who is also executive director of Imkaan – said. Holly Dustin, the report's author, remarked that “In 2005 we highlighted the failure to stop Ian Huntley’s predatory behaviour which allowed him to go on to murder Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman… years later we see the same devastating mistakes made in the case of Jamie Reynolds' murder of Georgia Williams. “In the intervening period, there have been multiple scandals, including the Savile revelations, multiple child 'grooming' cases and the current focus on child sexual abuse, yet still men’s violence goes unchecked. “We know that the intention to make women and girls safe is there… but specialist support services are in crisis and the failure to make Sex and Relationships Education compulsory is a key fail. “There is huge demand from the public to put an end to these scandals.” And Dustin concluded: “A society where women and girls are not safe is incompatible with a just and equal society. “We hope that political leaders at every level will hear this call.” To download the report, click here.  |
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