End Violence Against Women

End Violence Against Women (EVAW) is an unprecedented coalition of individuals and organisations (of which the UKPAC is a member) who are calling on the government, public bodies and others to take concerted action to end violence against women.

Their Vision
A society where women and girls can live their lives free from violence and the threat of violence. 

Campaign goals

• For violence against women to be understood as a cause and consequence of women's inequality
• To raise awareness about the nature, extent and impacts of violence against women in the UK, and how it can be prevented
• For the UK government and devolved administrations to develop integrated and strategic approaches to ending violence against women
• To share good practice across the UK and learn from the experience in Scotland where a framework is being developed

 

The June Bulletin

EVAW is recruiting

Work for EVAW and help create a safer world for women and girls! We are recruiting a Prevention Manager to run an exciting project on preventing violence against women and girls, and an Administrative Assistant to support our work. Following our success in campaigning for a cross-government strategy (published by the Home Office in November 2009), we are now focusing on the critical work of creating a world where women and girls can live without the threat or reality of violence. See job ads attached to this bulletin or click here to download the application packs from our website. Deadline for applications 1 July 2010. These posts are funded with the generous support of Comic Relief.

EVAW condemns rape proposal as driven by myths

EVAW opposes the Westminster Coalition Government's propsal to give anonymity to defendants in rape cases. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, repeated the myth in Prime Minister's Questions last week that "..a lot of people are falsely accused". In fact there is no evidence of this and we believe the proposal:
• is driven by myths that there are more false allegations for rape than other offences when there is no evidence of this
• will undermine efforts to bring rapists - often serial offenders - to justice
• will further undermine rape victims' confidence in the criminal justice system
• sends a message that rape complainants, overwhelmingly women, are likely to be lying

The reality is that up to 90% of victims do not report rape, and of those cases reported to the police only 6% result in conviction. Against this background we urge the Coalition Government to focus instead on implementing the cross-government violence against women strategy and to:
• ensure rape victims have access to specialist support wherever they live
• improve the response by the criminal justice system, including prosecutions
• take action to prevent sexual violence in the first place through campaigns, work in schools and tackling public attitudes

Welsh Assembly Government challenges abusive behaviour by men

One Step Too Far is an innovative campaign by the Welsh Assembly Government challenging abuse and harassment by men. It asks men to think about behaviou they may consider to be 'harmless' but is actually abusive and links it to violence against women. Click here for the campaign website and videos, here for the response from EVAW members Welsh Women's Aid.

 

 

UNIFEM Launches New Say NO – UNiTE Platform for Action

On 6 November 2009, UNIFEM launched the global advocacy initiative Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women, which will stimulate, count and showcase actions on ending violence against women. The innovative platform will spotlight global efforts and demonstrate the groundswell of support and actions on the issue. For more information on this visit their website

The Map of Gaps

On 30 January 2009, in a joint initiative between the End Violence Against Women campaign and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, an 80-page report, together with a new website, was published. 

From the report: "Each year, three million women in Britain experience rape, domestic violence, stalking or other violence. Many millions more are dealing with abuse experienced in the past.

"In 2007, the inaugural Map of Gaps report documented for the first time the uneven distribution of specialised services in Britain to help women who experience violence, such as Rape Crisis Centres and refuges. The findings were alarming: over one-third of local authorities had no specialised service provision at all. Only a minority had a range of services, defined as nine or more, covering different forms of violence (domestic violence, rape and sexual assault, trafficking, female genital mutilation and forced marriage) and types of support (safe shelter, advocacy, advice and self-help).

"One year on, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the End Violence Against Women Campaign (EVAW) have repeated this research. We wanted to see if the picture of support has changed for the millions of women who are forced to deal with the legacies of violence. But once again, victims face a regional postcode lottery, and in large parts of Britain provision is scarce or non-existent.

"Many women are still left without the local support they need:

• The latest picture shows that over one in four local authorities in Britain have no specialised support services at all.
• Ethnic minority women are especially poorly served. Of the 408 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales, just 1 in 10 have a specialised service for ethnic minority women. These services are uniquely suited to deal with women facing a very particular set of circumstances, for example those fleeing forced marriage or female genital mutilation, or those with insecure immigration status.
• Glasgow has the best provision in Britain, whereas the East and South East of England are particularly poorly served."

Since the launch of MoG 2, Soroptimist clubs acrosss the country have been working to check the gaps in the Map of Gaps and a report will be published later in the year.

You can view or download the 8-page Summary, or the full 80-page Report of the findings. Both documents are PDFs and will open quickly.

 

 

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