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A roadmap to eradicating violence against women in the UK

“A plan for schools, hospitals, councils, police forces and government departments to work together to end rape, domestic violence and other violence against women.”

2. How does it fit with Compass’ core beliefs of equality, solidarity, democracy, freedom, sustainability and well being?

Equality:
UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, says, “Violence against women continues to persist as one of the most heinous, systematic and prevalent human rights abuses in the world”

Democracy/Freedom:
Women can never have full freedom, or participate fully in society, if they are abused at home, sexually assaulted, trafficked or simply scared to walk a certain route home at night.

Well-being:
Victims suffer physical injuries, mental health problems, social exclusion and drug and alcohol problems.

Solidarity:
Women and men must stand together to say that abuse of women and girls is not inevitable.

3. How does it build the institutions of social democracy, like social groups and collective and cooperative forms of ownership and control?

Women’s organisations have driven progress on violence against women over the last 4 decades and it is women’s organisations that hold the key to tackling violence against women today by:
- being funded to support victims to help them flee violence and rebuild their lives
- building networks and coalitions to campaign for change
- provide expertise to public bodies
- develop creative thinking about challenging attitudes to violence.

Women’s groups, unions, human rights groups and others can build a grassroots movement to create change but they need to be funded to do this!

4. How much will it cost or raise and where will any cost come from?

Violence against women costs £40billion each year, including the cost to the police, courts and health service. This is more than the MOD’s annual spend! So a world where women are not raped, trafficked or beaten would be richer, in many ways.

Some work needs to be funded, including public campaigns to change attitudes, and funding for Rape Crisis Centres and other services.

However, much can be done at little cost if tackling violence is mainstreamed into existing work, eg working with young people around consent to sex and healthy relationships, and training for frontline workers.

5. Which groups in the electorate are likely to support or oppose this measure? Is there any polling evidence you have on this?

There is overwhelming public support for a better way of tackling violence against women. YouGov polling for End Violence Against Women in July 2008 found that 84% of people in the UK support cross-government action to prevent and eradicate violence. The benefits are clear; to current and future victims who know the real cost, to the families of the 2 women a week killed by a partner or ex partner and to the frontline workers - police, hospital, social workers - who have to mop up this problem on a daily basis.

6. Is there a place or country where it’s worked? Please provide some information.

National plans are recognised internationally as the way to effectively tackle violence against women, hence the UN’s repeated calls for States to take this approach. Vice-President-elect Joe Biden authored the ground-breaking Violence Against Women Act in America which has channelled over $5billion to prevention programmes, domestic violence shelters and Rape Crisis centres.

Closer to home the Scottish government has been developing a strategic framework on violence against women for some time. This includes ring fenced funding for rape crisis centres resulting in the expansion of the rape crisis sector in Scotland.

7. What are the three main arguments in favour/against it?

In the UK, three million women experience violence each year and many more have experienced abuse in the past. Surveys show that half of young men think it’s ok to hit a woman or force her to have sex in certain circumstances.

It is difficult to think of a good argument for not taking action.

- Morally it is the right thing to do
- Inaction is extremely costly, both to society and to individual women
- We are obliged by international agreements to take action

So lets set out a roadmap for eradicating violence against women!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 10:53 pm and is filed under Equality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.