UWE and Bristol Fawcettwith

Saturday, January 17 2009

Annette Lawson

info@nawo.org.uk; www.nawo.org.uk

What’s the Problem?‘an undeclared war against women’

Trevor Phillips, Chair EHRC

• The Home Office estimates that there are between 6,000 and 18,000 trafficked women and girls being forced to work as prostitutes in the UK.

• 1,000 -10,00 women and girls trafficked into UK each year for sex

• 45% of women in England and Wales experience domestic violence (DV), sexual assault or stalking in their lifetime; one in five women in N.I. experience DV

• 922 rapes reported to Police in Scotland in 2006/7• c.1,000 British Asian girls forced into marriage each year

[EVAW, Realising Rights, Fulfilling Obligations]

Globally……

• Every year 2 million girls aged between 5 and 15 are coerced, abducted, sold or trafficked into the illegal sex market.

• UN figures suggest that between 200-300,000 women are trafficked to Europe every year.

• Well over $7 billion a year is generated from sex trade trafficking.

• Two million children every year become victims of paedophiles and their networks as global demand for child pornography and child prostitution escalates.

WomenAid International 2002

Amnesty’s figures 2007 Trafficking

• Of the 2 million people trafficked every year – the majority are women and girls

• 137 countries receive them, mostly in Western Europe, Asia and Northern America

• 127 countries send them, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, West Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean

And in Europe?

• In the European Union, at least 1 in 5 women

experience violence committed by their intimate

male partner.• Ninety five per cent of all acts of Violence

Against Women take place within the home.• Male domestic violence tends to be the norm

and not the exception.• Every week in Hungary a woman is killed as

a result of domestic violence.

Trafficking together with other forms of gender based violence?

• It is essential to understand as part of gender inequality –

• Violence against women and girls arises from inequality and

• Constructs and maintains gender inequality

UNSRVAW Consultation

United Nations appoints

Special Rapporteurs under Human Rights e.g. on:• Torture• Housing• Racism and Xenophobia• Minority Issues• Trafficking in persons and…• Violence Against Women

UN Special Rapporteurs

• Are people of high integrity• Receive no payment• Supported by Human Rights Office in Geneva• Conduct special investigations of countries but

must be invited• Consult with e.g. NGOs

See her Mandate at:

www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/women/rapporteur/

What can they achieve?

• Reports are public documents – countries have invited them. Praise and shame but also learning

• Consulting with NGOs – experts – learn first hand evidence. Use this information.

• Have ‘special procedures’ including taking up individual cases

• No ‘teeth’

NAWO decided to invite UNSRVAW for Consultation

• NAWO with Women’s Voice (Wales) Engender (Scotland); NIWEP (NI) forms the UK Joint Committee on Women

• UKJCW is member of European Women’s Lobby• Lobby has European Policy Centre on VAW –

observatory at EU level• For ALL women’s organisations VAW is a major issue –

many focus on this – consultation valuable for policy change and implementation through lobbying and influence

• In the UK, we are working to establish a UK-wide national observatory to monitor government actions

Yakin Ertürk, UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women

with two delegates to Consultationwith European NGOs, January 2007

Countries and Organisations

• More than 100 representatives of NGOs attended in the UK and from EU member states and beyond to further ECE region – Eastern Europe

• Three days

• Evening speeches at London School of Economics and London House, Goodenough College

NAWO plus

• European Women’s Lobby

• Womankind Worldwide

• Women’s Refugee Resource Project of Asylum Aid

• Southall Black Sisters

• EVAW – End Violence Against Women Campaign at Amnesty International

Themes selected by Steering Group

• Infrastructure – legislation, implementation: police, provision for victims, cross-border

• Prevention – gender stereotyping, education, media

• ‘Moving Women’ – asylum seekers; refugees; migrants

Major Issues from the outset• Violence Against Women stems from inequalities between women

and men and transformative change is required to stop the cycle of violence.

• Language: The word “gender” may be used to mask real issues and avoid a focus on men’s Violence Against Women.

• Governments pass legislation that is gender neutral and implement policies as if there were no inequality in the perpetration of violence

• Such policies are too inclined to lose focus on views, experiences, concerns of women.

Major Outcomes 1

• Agreed definitions internationally were imperative – usethe UN definition

• Reliable Data to be collected to measure with agreedindicators; not only incidence and numbers of victimsof violence but perpetrators in order to understand whothey were and what kind of violence they used

• Strategies needed for eradicating Violence Against Women – e.g. a European Directive and action plan for the EU; National Action Plans (NAPs) for every state in the development of which women’s NGOs participate.

Major Outcomes - 2

• NGOs to seek to establish a unified voice despite conflicts of opinion, be recognised for their expertise and financed well

• That European-wide NGO consultations be held regularly

and they said…..

• Quote: “International institutions must oblige countries to put the conventions they have signed and ratified into practice”

Shpresa Banja, Albania

• Quote: “Where is the example to be led by?”

Renee Laviera, Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations

And you?

• Decide what the priorities are for you – here in the University? In your home community?

• Examine the evidence for the problem• Find allies and ‘victims’• Make your case for change/for good

practice/for implementation of existing laws

• Work at multiple levels

• Report on web: What practical steps need to be implemented to achieve an equitable world for women and girls?

• www.nawo.org.uk; info@nawo.org.uk