Women's Views on News |
| Ask your MP to help set her free Posted: 13 Apr 2016 11:21 AM PDT
The House of Lords just recently voted in favour of an amendment to the Immigration Bill which, if it passed into law, would end the detention of pregnant women in Yarl’s Wood. And as campaigners Women for Refugee Women said, it is wonderful that so many peers decided that it is time to protect vulnerable women. Click here to read the debate. The Bill now goes back to the House of Commons, so this amendment can be debated by Members of Parliament. If you haven’t already, please take a moment today to email your MP and ask them their views on the detention of vulnerable women. You could ask them to raise this issue with James Brokenshire, the immigration minister, to ask him to ensure that pregnant women are never locked up for immigration reasons. Lucy, for example, who was 23 when she fell pregnant, following a brutal gang rape by three men in her home country. After receiving threats to her life, she fled to the UK, believing she would be safe here – only to find herself locked up in Yarl's Wood detention centre at five months pregnant where the doctor and midwife didn't take her pain or her fears seriously, and she found her whole situation very distressing. And she, like too many raped women held in detention, reported how sometimes in the night, male officers would come in to her cell, for whatever reason. Said that male staff watched them in intimate situations such as while naked, partly dressed, in bed, in the shower or on the toilet. In 2014, 99 pregnant women were detained in Yarl's Wood. Just 9 of these women were deported. The remaining 90 per cent were released back into the community to continue with their claims. Their detention was unnecessary, and very traumatic. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the distress caused by being detained. The Royal College of Midwives has said: 'The detention of pregnant asylum seekers increases the likelihood of stress, which can risk the health of the unborn baby.' And that is before you look at the longstanding concerns about conditions inside Yarl's Wood – male guards routinely watching women in intimate situations, high levels of depression and self-harm, allegations of sexual abuse, and poor quality healthcare. Medical Justice found that pregnant women in Yarl's Wood often miss antenatal appointments; that some women have no ultrasound scans during their time in detention; and that women do not have direct access to a midwife. Home Office policy states that pregnant women should only be detained under exceptional circumstances. You can read a fuller briefing on the detention of pregnant women, with answers to frequently asked questions, here. When you write to your MP, you may want to say that: you are concerned about why the government is locking up pregnant women in Yarl’s Wood, even though the Royal College of Midwives says: ‘The detention of pregnant asylum seekers increases the likelihood of stress, which can risk the health of the unborn baby.’ you are concerned that the government detained 99 pregnant women in 2014, even though Home Office policy says pregnant women will only be detained ‘in exceptional circumstances’. you would like to know whether your MP will be supporting the amendment against the detention of pregnant women or speaking up for women in detention when the Immigration Bill goes back to the House of Commons. We hope that by informing more MPs about this issue we can ensure that fewer vulnerable women are locked up in detention.  |
| Fawcett Society history book launched Posted: 13 Apr 2016 11:14 AM PDT
'In the Steps of Exceptional Women' is the first book to trace the history of the Fawcett Society from its origins in the suffrage movement in 1866 up to its campaigns for equality now, 150 years later. The Fawcett Society grew out of a sequence of Women’s Suffrage groups which had campaigned not only for the initial right to vote, then an extension of that right to younger women, but also for greater employment opportunities for women in general. The figure of Millicent Fawcett dominates its first sixty years. Millicent Fawcett was a very early campaigner for women’s suffrage from the 1860s onward and had been a follower of John Stuart Mill. Her methods were less militant and ‘more gradualist’ than some other campaigners. The book's author, Jane Grant has been a practioner, activist and researcher in the women's movement for more than thirty years – and a member of the Fawcett Society for as many years, three of those on its Executive. She helped to found the National Alliance of Women's Organisation (NAWO) in 1989, an umbrella organisation for over 100 organisations and individuals based in England. Her doctorate, from the University of Kent, was on 'The Governance of Women's Organisations' – and she has remained fascinated by how organisations work. This insider/outsider viewpoint enables her to write a fascinating picture of both the triumphs and the challenges of running an organisation fighting for equality from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first. The book was launched at an event on 8 April held at the Millicent Fawcett Hall, a building designed by Douglas Wood for a campaigning feminist body then known as the ‘London and National Society for Women’s Service’ – now the Fawcett Society. The foundation stone laid by her in 1929, the year that she died, is to the left of the entrance. The book launch last week was attended by many of the Fawcett Society's previous chairs, trustees and directors as well as members and supporters old and new. Even Jeremy Corbyn MP dropped in! Speakers included the Fawcett Society's current President Jenni Murray, Fiona Mactaggart MP and Lord Finkelstein. The book is available to buy now from the Fawcett Society's online shop.  |
| 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 | |