Women's Views on News |
| Police campaign against emotional abuse Posted: 21 Dec 2015 06:10 AM PST
Police Scotland have launched a new domestic abuse campaign highlighting emotional abuse and how abusers control their victims through fear, intimidation and isolation. About 20 per cent of police time is spent tackling domestic incidents, with Police Scotland getting a call every nine minutes. Traditionally a time for families, the festive season is also the peak season for domestic abuse, starting on the Friday before Christmas when many people finish work. This ‘Love Doesn't Control’ campaign focuses on coercive control – domestic abuse which often takes the form of financial and emotional manipulation, someone’s personal freedom being restricted, insults, and/or someone being purposely isolated from family or friends. The campaign will run from today into the beginining of the New Year and includes outdoor advertising and social media activity. A radio advertisement is also scheduled to run from 24 December. Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: "Domestic abuse is something no-one should ever have to endure. "The festive period is a time when families and loved ones should be coming together to celebrate and look after each other. "However we know that the festive period can be an awful time for victims of domestic abuse. “That's why I firmly support the robust action that Police Scotland is taking to tackle this issue head-on and not only target offenders, but also provide a vital awareness-raising campaign to reach those who might not be victims of physical violence, but emotional and psychological abuse. "These invisible scars are just as damaging. "Collectively, Scotland is sending a strong message that domestic abuse in any form is unacceptable. "Alongside this enforcement action, the Scottish Government has invested £20m across three years to tackle violence against women and girls, and we are seeking to strengthen the criminal law to ensure that psychological abuse is treated as seriously as physical. “Put simply, there is no place for domestic abuse in our country." What is domestic abuse? Domestic abuse exists in all sections of our communities. Domestic abuse can exist in all types of relationships between partners and ex partners. Abusers and victims can be male or female, any race or religion and from all different types of background. Police Scotland works to a nationally agreed definition of domestic abuse which has been adopted by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. This is: "Any form of physical, sexual or mental and emotional abuse which might amount to criminal conduct and which takes place within the context of a relationship. "The relationship will be between partners (married, co-habiting, civil partnership or otherwise) or ex-partners. The abuse can be committed in the home or elsewhere." There is a common misconception that domestic abuse is just physical abuse. This is not the case. Domestic abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional or mental abuse. Physical abuse includes: All types of assault and physical attacks like hitting (including with objects), punching, kicking and burning. Sexual abuse includes: Forcing you to have sexual intercourse or forcing you to engage in sexual acts. Mental/emotional abuse includes: Threats (including threats of violence); criticism and name calling; coercive control, controlling what you do, where you go and who you speak to; threatening your children, isolating you from friends and family; accusing you of being unfaithful; threatening to ‘out’ your sexual orientation to family, friends or work colleagues; sharing or threatening to share intimate images of you with family, friends or work colleagues (commonly known as 'Revenge Porn'). Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams of Police Scotland said: "Domestic abuse can takes many forms and while most people are aware of the physical violence that is often carried out by abusers, there can also be mental and emotional abuse taking place behind closed doors. “It is insidious and manipulative and is designed to destroy victim's confidence and control their actions through fear of violent reprisal. “This emotional abuse might be invisible, but the damage to victims is significant. “Let me be clear,” he continued: “Police Scotland will not tolerate this horrific crime in any form. “This week, domestic abuser Donnie Renfrew, was handed a 15-year sentence. Emotional abuse was one of the tactics he used to induce fear in his victims. “Emotional abuse is domestic abuse, love doesn't control, and our message to those who abuse their partners either physically or emotionally is that there is no place to hide – we will find you.” Call 101 for non-emergencies and general enquiries. In an emergency call 999. If you have information about a crime you can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 – and the call is free. These numbers are valid thoughout the UK.  |
| Posted: 21 Dec 2015 05:02 AM PST
By Lisa Davis. The US may be tempted to congratulate itself for wrangling Russia to the table for today's meeting on Syria's peace talks. Yet an indispensable party is missing: Syrian women. Today, we face the prospect of a Middle East peace conference with disappointment at its delay and frustration that, yet again, negotiators embrace a framework that ignores the origins of the revolution and gives credence only to men with guns. Watching the spectacle of governments manoeuvring for a place at the negotiating table, one has to ask: where are the women who started this revolution? The reality in Syria today is radically different from March 2011, when young women and men across Syria united in peaceful demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's regime. Since then, the country has fractured, with ISIL controlling large swaths of territory across Syria and Iraq; Kurdish forces securing the north and pockets of control scattered between different militias and rebel groups. The conflict has left over 6 million people displaced, over three-quarters of a million refugees pushing into Europe and thousands dying along the way. Women who organized during the uprising are serving as local peacebuilders in the conflict. For example, to the north in ISIL-controlled Deir Ezzor and the government-controlled Al-Hasaka, women are working to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers and small arms proliferation. In the contested city if Idlib women have organized discussion workshops on the links between Islamic principles and democracy. In Damascus, women are advocating for peace processes to include the political solutions laid out in the Geneva I Communiqué. And they're talking with each other. Last month MADRE, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and CUNY Law School organized a second Strategies for Change convening that brought together women's rights advocates from across Iraq and Syria. Together, they are calling on the international community to include Syrian women in the peace talks scheduled for next year. Given that accords are often more successful and peace more likely to prevail when women are included, it's baffling that women remain the largest group of stakeholders regularly excluded from official peace negotiations. It's also illegal under international law. So why are women being left out? In December, Steffan de Mistura, the Special Envoy for Syria, said, "Women’s leadership and participation in conflict resolution are critical for sustainable solutions. The engagement of women in shaping the future of Syria is more important now than ever before." With only "soft" commitments given by the UN, women peacebuilders who have long demonstrated willingness and capacity to participate in talks have not received any guarantees they will be included in the upcoming process. Exclusion from negotiations – whether based on religion, ethnicity, gender, or some other protected class – is undemocratic and only fuels instability and conflict renewal. With the threat of new talks being run aground by uncompromising parties and state self-interest, there is nothing to lose and much to gain from the potent addition of women to the talks. Peace treaties without women don't work. This was true for the demilitarized zone of El Caguan, Colombia, where experts repeatedly cite the lack of women's participation as the key reason for years of failed peace talks. The same was true for peace accords in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which should be chastening enough: no women and no civil society members were permitted near the negotiations. Only warlords were invited. Unsurprisingly, that peace agreement institutionalized a permanent state of ethnic division in an impossible constitution. The result has been economic devastation, absence of human rights, and, according to the United Nations, a strong possibility of renewed conflict. Post-conflict experience teaches us that when women are excluded from peace negotiations, political solutions readily collapse. At minimum, accords without women reflect the interests of the most powerful, failing to create sustainable measures to protect those most affected. Peace agreements should not only be about an end to fighting but also about creating conditions where people can thrive and societies can flourish. At the very least, such accords should ensure conditions in which actors aren't driven to take up arms again. Where women have been included in peacebuilding, they have built bridges across parties and issues while meaningfully involving civil society in solutions that promote social change. For example, in Northern Ireland, women peacebuilders successfully united activists across political and religious divides. In Sudan, women led demands for the inclusion of social and economic relief into the final peace agreement. As we wait for negotiations, the violence will continue and the encroaching winter will bring thousands of more deaths. Those dying will be the most vulnerable, those involuntarily trapped between fighting factions, and those whom humanitarian aid fails to reach. Yet, local peace organizers are not invited to the anticipated talks, as if to signal that their stake in their own future and the future of their country is somehow less important than men with guns. Despite this dismissive treatment, Syrian women continue to organize to make their voices heard and to convey the message that there are ways to peace. As the international community takes tentative steps towards Syrian peace talks, why not try something that's age-tested and consistently proven to work? It's time to bring women to the table. And leaders like John Kerry should take note. Syrian women are not just waiting to be included: they are demanding it. Lisa Davis is Human Rights Advocacy Director at MADRE, and Clinical Law Professor at CUNY Law School. A version of this article appeared on the openDemocracy website on 18 December 2015.  |
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