Violence Against Women
(13 years ago)
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Baroness Hussein-Ece
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to promote and support the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, designated by the United Nations General Assembly for 25 November each year.
Baroness Hussein-Ece
My Lords, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited Governments, international organisations and NGOs to organise activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. Women activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981. The date came from the brutal assassination in 1960 of the three Mirabal sisters, who were political activists in the Dominican Republic.
Violence against women has been described as perhaps the most pervasive violation of human rights across the globe. Governments have obligations to prevent violence against women under international and national human rights and equalities laws. Under the European Convention on Human Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the United Kingdom has obligations to prevent violence against women before it happens.
The UK Government's commitment to tackling violence against women is clear. Our success in tackling this will be a test of this Government's ability to build a fairer society. There is clearly much more to do to ensure that women and girls are not held back. We should strive to be ambitious in our aims and to meet a shared commitment to ending violence. Violence against women and girls in the UK is still, sadly, widespread and has serious social, health, emotional and financial consequences. It is more prevalent among women in England than stroke, diabetes and heart disease. Attitudes that justify and excuse abuse are, sadly, still deeply entrenched.
Gender equality cannot be achieved while violence continues. In modern-day Britain, two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner. Sexual harassment in schools, communities and workplaces is still routine, and 60,000 women are raped every year. Trafficking and sexual exploitation affect thousands of women in the United Kingdom, and an estimated 6,500 girls in this country are still at risk of female genital mutilation each year. This is a scandal, and we simply cannot go on like this.
Just last summer, Jane Clough, a 26 year-old nurse working in Blackpool Victoria Hospital was brutally murdered by her ex-partner, the father of her baby, as she arrived to begin her night shift. Her murderer, Jonathan Vass, had appeared in court the previous December charged with three counts of rape. He had been further charged with six counts of rape and three assaults. Despite strong objections by the police and the Crown Prosecution Service, he was released on bail by Judge Simon Newell, who had been told that he posed a real threat to the victim as a witness. Just recently, I watched a TV documentary about this awful case, which was so harrowing. For weeks, Jane Clough lived in fear. She kept a diary of how she feared for her life. Despite this fear, Jane did all the right things. She reported the rape and the violence, but her rapist was bailed, and he went on to kill her. This young woman was badly let down by the judicial system, resulting in her brutal death, leaving a small baby. When will victims receive more protection, and when will lessons be learnt? How can victims have confidence in the system when we still have incidents like this which, unfortunately, are still commonplace?
I declare an interest as a commissioner in the Equality and Human Rights Commission. As part of the commission's role as the national human rights institution and in line with our international reporting responsibilities, we at the commission have supported the drafting of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. This convention sets out legally binding standards for all forms of violence against women, bridging some of the existing gaps in human rights protection. However, the United Kingdom has yet to become a signatory of the convention.
In April 2011, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a new convention on preventing and combating violence against women. It has not, as I mentioned, been signed by the UK Government. Since the convention opened for signature in June, 17 countries have ratified, including Austria, France, Germany, Iceland, Macedonia, Sweden, Turkey and Ukraine. The commission, and many of us, would be expected to encourage the United Kingdom Government to adopt international human rights standards. Can I ask the Minister whether the United Kingdom Government have reached a decision on becoming a signatory? In a recent response to a similar question, the Equalities Minister stated that the Government would consider the equality implications when making a decision on that signature.
Lord Boswell of Aynho
I speak as a member of the British delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I have some experience of these situations there and I am very much in sympathy with what the noble Baroness said about the need to combat violence of all kinds against women.
Would it not be fair—I am perhaps setting this up for the Minister also to comment—to say that in the United Kingdom we tend to take a very rigorous view of our ability to have the legislation and the other administrative arrangements in place before we sign up to conventions and that there will always be, as indeed there was in relation to the convention on the trafficking of women, where a number of us pressed very hard for a British signature, a certain reticence before we sign up? It is not a lack of commitment—or at least I hope it is not—but rather a determination to get our ducks in a row before we commit ourselves. Some of the other member states may take a slightly lighter view of their responsibilities, although they should, of course, take them equally seriously.
Baroness Hussein-Ece
I thank my noble friend for that helpful intervention and for bringing his experience to bear on what I have to say. I hope that the Minister, when she comes to respond, will also ratify some of the problems in committing to a signature.
We all know that internationally—and this is an international day, after all—there is still so much to do. I have raised the plight of Afghan women in your Lordships’ House before, and I would like to turn briefly to a terrible incident that happened just last Thursday, which I was struck by. It was reported very widely in the news. A group of armed men stoned and shot dead a woman and her daughter in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province. Officials blamed the Taliban, who they said had accused the women of moral deviation and adultery. The police said that two men had been arrested in connection with the murder. The attack happened only 300 metres from the governor’s office in Ghazni city, which is on the list of places to be transferred to Afghan security control, and close to the police chief’s office and a Western-backed provincial reconstruction team. I find it quite extraordinary that no one called for help in this terrible incident. Security officials said armed men entered the house where the young widow lived with her daughter and took them out to the yard where they were initially stoned and then shot dead. Officials said a number of religious leaders in the city had been issuing fatwas asking people to report any one who was involved in adultery.
We are 10 years on in this country’s involvement with Afghanistan, and I think most of us will remember —I certainly remember very clearly—that one of the reasons given for that involvement was to make things better for women in Afghanistan. Despite all these promises, the plight of women in Afghanistan seems to be, and the evidence shows this, worse than ever. Can the Minister say what representations and influence Britain has in bringing the plight of women to the top of the political agenda in terms of our relationship and our activities in Afghanistan? What activities are being developed, or are planned, to highlight what is happening there, and what can be brought to bear to change things?
I will conclude with an appropriate and wise comment from Mary Wollstonecraft, the 18th century writer and activist, who is regarded as the mother of British feminism. She will have her image beamed onto the Houses of Parliament tomorrow between 4.10 pm and 6.10 pm. The campaign to celebrate her life is being organised by the charity Newington Green Action Group. It hopes to place her statue in London’s Newington Green, in Islington, in the ward I represented as a councillor, very near to where I grew up, where Wollstonecraft lived and set up a girls’ school in the 1700s. She simply wrote of women:
“I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves”.
She lived between 1759 and 1797, and it struck me that 250 years later we are still debating this very basic principle of allowing women to have control and power over their own lives. I hope that one day there will be no need for further debates such as this.
I thank noble Lords who have taken part in this debate. There were other noble Lords who indicated that they would have liked to have taken part, but there is a lot of business going on, and a clash in your Lordships’ House.
Baroness Howells of St Davids
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, for providing this opportunity to discuss such an important subject and for her carefully crafted opening to this debate. I will use my few minutes to share with you some of the insights I got on the subject while working as a councillor in the community. However, first I invite the Committee to consider how for centuries mankind has sought control. The way of controlling has been by the cracking of the whip by bosses, parents and school teachers. Today, we are very lucky that some of these controls have been removed. At the base of discipline, the end result has been to show who is in charge. Taking control is the key factor. Such behaviour may emanate from a number of causes, including a sense of entitlement, often supported by sexist, racist, homophobic and other discriminatory attitudes. I well remember a case of a father battering his son to death when he disclosed to him that he was gay. His words to me were, “I accepted my son had grown up, but I had no control over his sexuality, and I had to bear the shame”. He said this over and over again. “When did I lose control of my family? I did all I could for my son, and now he has brought disgrace, he has brought shame to our family. My wife was too soft”. He then turned and attacked her.
It is always clear that the abuser is responsible for the violence. However, I believe conditioning may be at the root of uncontrolled abuse. How do we begin to address such conditioning? Domestic violence can be defined to include any violence to children, mothers or other members of the family. Domestic violence is dangerous. It is more so when the perpetrator is the man who sees himself as the breadwinner and the supporter of the family. He asks himself how he can become big when he can no longer play that role. He feels helpless, he loses the control he has always had and the power of being in charge which has always been there. If it appears to be slipping by losing one’s job, by feeling that others in the workplace are getting better breaks, or even by having a nervous breakdown, then the abuse can start.
When discussing the issue with women, most always want to blame themselves. The perpetrator is in no doubt that it is not the woman’s fault. Nevertheless this is so well accepted that the woman herself believes that she is the reason that his control has gone. Although this perception is changing in women, they are still reluctant to report the abuse. Children in households are often sworn to secrecy. Women can always recount cases of others who have been brave enough to seek redress, only to find that even where cases have been proven, somehow the danger they and their families are in hardly ever penetrates the legal system. The abuser either escapes jail, or if he is incarcerated, he serves half a sentence and returns to take vengeance on them, which often leads to their deaths. One young woman opened her door without even knowing that the man who had abused her was out, and he shot her as the door opened.
Our society appears to be becoming very violent. Many learned men and women have written in great detail about the causes of violent behaviour, blaming family breakdown, the loss of Christian values, the influence of the media, drugs and criminality as a whole. During this time of recession, can the Government be the voice for change on violence against women? We know from research that the vast majority of domestic violence is perpetrated against women and children, and women are considerably more likely to experience repeated and severe forms of violence and sexual abuse. Women may experience domestic violence regardless of their ethnicity, religion, class, age, sexuality, disability or lifestyle. The main perpetrators, as we know from research, are always men. Abusers choose to behave violently to gain control. A perfectly reasonable man can resort to domestic violence if he feels that he is losing that control. The mentally ill can also resort to violence as in their illness they perceive that their control is slipping away from them. The victims of stroke can also become very violent indeed. Does the Minister have any plans to end that sort of violence against women at this time, perhaps by bringing forward new legislation so that at least we can have the final say on the abusive acts that men perform against women?
Baroness Gale
My Lords, I begin by thanking the noble Baroness, Lady Hussein-Ece, for tabling this very important debate today, on the eve of White Ribbon Day. The debate has highlighted how difficult it is to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, but let us look at what is going on in the United Kingdom today. In our country, one in four women and one in six men is affected by domestic violence during their adult lives. In 2004, Professor Sylvia Walby estimated that the cost to the UK economy in terms of both lost productivity and direct costs associated with such violence is £23 billion a year. Tackling domestic violence should be seen as essential not just for reducing costs but also in order to remove a significant barrier to true equality, not just in the workplace, but in society as a whole.
The noble Baroness mentioned the statistics. Currently, two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner, which is a terrible disgrace. Some 60,000 women are raped every year, while trafficking and sexual exploitation affects thousands of women in the UK. The noble Baroness described that as a scandal, and I agree with her. Women who suffer from violence need help and support. This Christmas, families across the country will be under added strain as a direct result of the coalition cuts. It is imperative therefore that the Government should take a long hard look at the impact of their policies on women’s safety. The Government must ensure that cuts to police and local authority services do not mean that women who experience domestic violence are left vulnerable and without proper support.
Community police officers play a vital role in working with women in their community. Only a few weeks ago I had the opportunity of listening to three women community police officers whose work on the ground means that they are regarded as friends in the community. Women who need help are quite happy to speak to these policewomen who will keep an eye on them, which sometimes is all that they need. They are there to help and support them, and will take action if things get worse. These women police officers love their job and are really involved in the community. I hope that this vital work where the police can work directly with the community will not suffer in England. Only yesterday, the Welsh Government announced that they will be taking on a further 500 community police officers, which will be welcomed by the communities in Wales, especially by vulnerable women.
I perceive a worrying theme emerging throughout government, which seems to give little thought to issues concerning the safety of women and the disproportionate effect that policies will have on their lives. Women need to feel safe both at home and when they are out and about in the community. CCTV and street lighting play a key part in making women feel safe on their own streets. The Government’s savage cuts to local authority budgets and plans to roll back CCTV use by police and local authorities will jeopardise that safety.
The changes in the definition of domestic violence and admissibility of evidence in the legal aid Bill will mean that many women who are victims of domestic violence will not be eligible for vital legal aid support in the future. Last month, the Women’s Institute published a report, Legal Aid is a Lifeline: Women Speak Out on the Legal Aid Reforms, which spells out how women feel about the legal aid Bill and how concerned they are. In the past, women who have suffered violence and abuse over a period of years have had legal aid when they have needed it. The report makes grim reading.
Women are concerned about the gateways to legal aid, as spelled out in the Bill. Comments made in focus groups for the report say that the gateways fail,
“to reflect women’s experiences of domestic violence”.
Another concern highlighted that, if women are denied access to the legal advice that they need in order to leave a relationship, more women will be killed by violent partners. Women said that not just their safety but the safety of their children depends on legal aid. Legal aid is a vital lifeline for women and children to get out of abusive relationships. Does the Minister agree with women who fear that the removal of legal aid, except in very restrictive circumstances, could lead to violence against them increasing rather than decreasing, which is what we all hope to see? Will she agree to discuss this further with Ministers, not only to make them aware but for them to listen to the voice of women who have experience in these matters? I hope that Ministers will take a long hard look at the findings from this respected organisation.
This year, at the Labour Party conference, the shadow Home Secretary called on the Government to take decisive action and make stalking a separate criminal offence in order to provide greater protection for the majority of women, who make up 80 per cent of stalking victims. With the support of the National Association of Probation Officers and Protection Against Stalking, Labour has tabled an amendment to the Protection of Freedoms Bill which will create a specific new offence of stalking and will increase the maximum penalty to five years’ imprisonment. Scotland introduced a similar provision in June 2010, which will lead to an estimated 500 to 600 prosecutions—up from an average of seven stalking-related prosecutions a year. The amendment to the Protection of Freedoms Bill replicates this highly effective change to Scottish law and we hope that Members on all sides of the House will support it.
My noble and learned friend Lady Scotland had hoped to speak in our debate, but she is attending the funeral of the late Lord Gould. The work that she has carried out in the field of domestic violence is well known and she is an expert on it. Had she been here today, we would have learnt about an organisation she has recently established called the Global Foundation for the Elimination of Domestic Violence. I can do no better than quote from her notes when she launched the foundation. She said:
“Globally the problem of domestic violence is no less acute. Figures from UN Women show that violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. Compared with the UK, globally up to six out of every 10 women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. Furthermore, a study of 24,000 women in 10 countries by the World Health Organisation recorded that the prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence by a partner varied from 15 per cent in urban Japan to 71 per cent in rural Ethiopia, with most areas being in the 30 to 60 per cent range. Internationally much valuable work has been done by UNIFEM and now UN Women, but I believe we can all do more to address this issue.
The Global Foundation for the Elimination of Domestic Violence will be an invaluable tool for sharing knowledge, promoting good practice and providing the research expertise to help countries, organisations and people to come together to eradicate this deeply damaging problem … The Challenge for the future is to eradicate that abuse so as to limit the damage and dysfunction that is caused to, not only women, but their children, and indeed their partners. Stopping a potential perpetrator early on is far easier and more effective than dealing with the devastating consequences they may subsequently cause. I believe we have new opportunities to change the status quo. There is no doubt in my mind that we can, if we choose, eradicate domestic violence from our world. The real question is: do we choose?”.
We can do no better than take heed of the wise words of my noble and learned friend Lady Scotland. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
Baroness Verma
My Lords, I join all noble Lords in thanking my noble friend for opening this important short debate. I also thank all noble Lords who have participated. The wealth and quality of contributions demonstrates that ending violence against women and girls is an issue which resonates with us all. We must continue to work together with the voluntary sector, the police, local authorities and others to turn that vision into a reality. I hope that I will be able to answer some of the questions through my contribution and, of course, I will gather up towards the end what I feel I have missed out.
The Government take the issue of domestic violence very seriously. We believe that no woman should have to live in fear. No one should think that it is acceptable to be violent. No child should ever grow up in a home where violence is an everyday occurrence. As has been said, one in four women in the UK has been affected by domestic violence. According to a UN report, at least one in three women globally says that she has been beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime.
The Government are developing a number of events to support and promote this year’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This will be an opportunity both to mark what has already been achieved and to build a profile of the existing and emerging work that we are trying to carry out to tackle what is often a hidden issue. This is all part of ongoing work. As noble Lords are aware, on 25 November last year, the Government published Call to End Violence against Women and Girls, which outlined four guiding principles: first, to prevent violence happening in the first place by challenging the attitudes and behaviours that foster it and to intervene early where possible to prevent it; secondly, to provide adequate levels of support where violence occurs; thirdly, to work in partnership to obtain the best outcome for victims and their families; and fourthly, to take action to reduce the risk to women and girls who are victims of these crimes and to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice.
A detailed range of supporting actions was published on 8 March this year. We have protected more than £28 million of Home Office funding until 2015 for specialist services to tackle violence against women and girls. This funding is going to support independent domestic violence advisers, independent sexual violence advisers and multiagency risk assessment conference co-ordinators, posts which are vital to support victims of domestic and sexual violence and abuse. Other vital services are also being funded, such as £900,000 of Home Office funding per year for providing support to national helplines, including the stalking helpline. This funding is in addition to the Ministry of Justice funding of up to £3.5 million per year for up to three years to rape crisis centres. Last week, the Home Secretary announced a £1.2 million programme over the next three years for services to support girls under 18 suffering rape and sexual abuse.
The Home Office is also running a media campaign to challenge attitudes among some teenage boys and girls and to send out a clear message that any abuse in relationships is unacceptable. Central government funding is one aspect, but we know that many organisations also rely on funding from local authorities. Local authorities also have to make some tough spending decisions, but we made sure that protecting vulnerable people, including victims of domestic violence, was a priority in the spending review. The Supporting People programme will give local authorities 99p this year for every £1 they had last year, so we take the view that there is no excuse for making cuts to these essential services.
We are working to change attitudes towards women. Earlier this month, we launched a campaign on social media and online channels to help stop teenagers becoming victims or perpetrators of abuse. The campaign shows that abuse is unacceptable, helps young people to recognise abusive behaviour and aims to empower them to challenge that behaviour. We are also providing training for professionals and front-line staff in areas such as the NHS to spot the early warning signs of and risk factors for domestic and sexual violence.
We are also piloting new powers for the police with domestic violence protection orders in three police force areas: Greater Manchester, West Mercia and Wiltshire. DVPs prevent the perpetrator returning to a residence or having contact with a victim for up to 28 days, for example, which gives the victim immediate protection and allows her breathing space to consider her options. We have directed that local areas and agencies should undertake a domestic homicide review after every domestic violent death to make sure that the right lessons are learnt to help stop future homicides and violence. The Government want constantly to look at new ways of protecting victims and preventing tragic incidents happening. That is why we recently published a consultation on a domestic violence disclosure scheme to seek views on whether to introduce a scheme for disclosing information about an individual’s history of domestic violence to a new partner.
We are very clear that our obligations to help women who are being abused do not stop at our borders so, for the first time, our strategy to tackle violence against women and girls also includes the innovative work we are doing internationally on this global problem. In addition to contributing £10 million of core funding to UN Women and £3.2 million to its women, peace and security programme, DfID’s business plan for 2011-15 now identifies violence against women and girls as a priority and commits DfID to pilot new approaches to prevent it. The UK national action plan commits DfID to helping 10 million women access justice through the courts, the police and legal assistance. As many as 25 DfID country officers are now pushing forward with integrating violence against women and girls programmes into their operational plans. These include interventions designed to respond to violence once it has happened as well as programmes designed to prevent violence through long-term attitude and behavioural change.
For example, in Somalia DfID is funding training for police officers and legal officials in dealing with sexual violence cases, as well as funding sexual assault referral centres which enable women to access free medical care, counselling and legal advice. Through the Social Inclusion Research Fund in Nepal, DfID has also funded a wide range of work tackling violence against women and girls, including a one-year action research project on sexual violence in schools. Lynne Featherstone MP, the Home Office Minister with responsibility for equality, visited Nepal from 12 to 15 June this year, partly because of these efforts to address widespread violations of women’s rights. The Minister met a broad range of people, including the former Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal. Two weeks ago I met the Italian Minister for Women and Equality. We had an incredibly constructive meeting, and the Minister also met the Home Secretary. We found that we are all committed to ensuring that we recognise our shared commonalities in wanting to tackle this very serious issue. I am glad that our European partners are working closely with what we are doing so that we have a consistent approach on how to tackle this really despicable form of violence. The UK is responding to the urgent need to reduce the impact of conflict on women and girls and to tackle sexual violence in conflict through its national action plan on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.
Before I conclude, I will respond to some of the points raised by noble Lords. My noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece asked about the Council of Europe convention on domestic violence. The Government are strongly committed to combating violence against women and promoting women’s rights more broadly. The Home Secretary has commissioned a cross-Whitehall consultation and has identified that legislative reform in various complex policy areas will be necessary if the UK is to sign and ratify the convention. However, I reassure my noble friend and other noble Lords that the Home Office is continuing to work robustly with interested government departments to identify obstacles in the way of signature and ratification so that they can be addressed. My noble friend Lord Boswell was absolutely right to say that we take these issues very seriously, so we want to make sure that what we are signing up to will deliver exactly what it says on the can. We are working hard with our partners, but I reassure my noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece because I know she feels passionate about this, that we are making sure that when we sign up we will have something that we can deliver on.
My noble friend also mentioned Afghanistan, and I know that she and I share a common theme on this. The incident she mentioned was despicable and has to be openly condemned, but I assure her that our work in Afghanistan is quite robust and productive. Through our multi-donor Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, which helps to pay the salaries of civil servants, we have been able to pay 48,000 women teachers. That has aided 2 million girls to get to school. We know that progress looks as if it is slow, but at least it is in the right direction. I suspect that pressure from the UK and other partners will ensure that that progress continues.
I also pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Howells of St Davids—I call her my noble friend because I think she is—on her eloquent and thoughtful contribution. She set out graphically exactly what the problems are. We all recognise that there has to be a culture change and an attitudinal change. Like her, I believe that this is not about party-political point-scoring, but about us working collectively to ensure that we make progress on this issue. I hope that she will be reassured by my own contribution that the Government are taking some very serious steps towards those changes.
Of course I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Gale, that women absolutely have to feel safe. They have to be confident that we as a Government are taking account of this issue. We have no control over the global economic condition, and she knows that we have to work against the backdrop of our own national deficit that needs to be addressed. But that does not mean that we will cut back on making sure that vulnerable people—women suffering from domestic violence—are protected. We take these issues seriously and, as I have said, we have dedicated resource funding for particular funding for particular projects to ensure that women will be protected and will have recourse.
The noble Baroness asked whether the definition of domestic violence has been changed. I can reassure her that it has not. Women will still have recourse to legal aid if they are the victims of domestic violence. We will have a long and full debate on the legal aid Bill so I do not want to take up my time discussing that here, although I am sure that we will have plenty to say to each other in the Chamber on that one.
The noble Baroness also asked about stalking. Yesterday my honourable friend Lynne Featherstone launched in Manchester a consultation on stalking. We take this issue very seriously.
I have gone over my time. If there is anything that I have not mentioned or have not responded to, I undertake to write to noble Lords. I thank my noble friend for tabling this Question because it is a very important subject.