Tackling Violence against Women and Girls Overseas

Thursday 28th April 2016 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for International Development (Mr Desmond Swayne)]

My noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development (Baroness Verma), has today made the following statement:

I would like to take this opportunity to update the House on my work as ministerial champion for tackling violence against women and girls overseas, following my appointment in December.

It has been an extremely busy period and the UK Government have continued to do a significant amount of work to protect and extend women and girls’ rights globally, including on violence against women and girls.

Following my appointment I have conducted a consultation on the activities for the ministerial champion role, to ensure that my approach within my high-level objectives is the most effective, and is informed by what people here in the UK would like me to be doing. I have consulted with civil society organisations and academics, youth activists and grassroots women’s rights organisations (both in the UK and overseas), and the previous ministerial champion. I also conducted a live chat via The Guardian website. I had my final roundtable yesterday—co-hosted with my ministerial colleague from the Home Office, the Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime (Karen Bradley)—hearing from organisations working on violence in the UK. I will share the consultation findings and my next steps soon.

Last month I represented the UK on violence against women and girls at the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the largest global policymaking mechanism on women and girls’ rights. I came away feeling extremely proud of the UK’s leadership on violence against women and girls, including our ongoing and significant investments in programming to reach the most marginalised girls and women. We can all be proud of the contribution we are making to preventing and responding to violence in some of the most difficult places to be a girl or a woman—be they living in extreme poverty, conflict or protracted crisis.

At CSW, the Secretary of State for International Development’s leadership on the UN high-level panel on women’s economic empowerment was warmly welcomed on the international stage, and the UK was vocal on how violence acts as a critical barrier to women’s economic empowerment. I co-hosted a side event with Brazil and Mozambique where I was particularly vocal on the need for new forms of partnerships to tackle violence. I also gave keynote speeches on the importance of tackling violence against older women and disabled women and girls. Leaving no one behind, including by ensuring we reach the most vulnerable and marginalised, remains a top priority for DFID’s ministerial team.

Crucially, the UK negotiated hard for good language on women and girls’ rights, including living free from violence, in the international agreed conclusions. These act as soft law and civil society representatives from across the world spoke passionately about the importance of the language for setting global norms on what member states need to do to protect and progress women and girls’ rights.

We also had a large range of activities across Government on International Women’s Day earlier in March. In my capacity as ministerial champion on violence against women and girls, I spoke alongside Ministers at the FCO and MOD on the importance of addressing violence as part of our work on women, peace and security. I also spoke at the Women of the World festival on how violence and gender-based discrimination drive poverty, and how collectively we can work together, engaging women and girls and men and boys, to provide platforms for the most vulnerable. The Cross-Government strategy on violence against women and girls was also published, demonstrating the ongoing leadership of ministerial colleagues at the Home Office, and the links between efforts domestically and internationally to end violence.

The priorities for me now include acting upon the series of important recommendations coming out of the consultation that I have just completed. I will be undertaking a series of visits to developing countries working to address this issue, looking to support efforts—particularly where rates of violence are extremely high—and to learn where innovative approaches are seeing dramatic reductions in violence. The UK has some way to go before we see our international goal of eradicating violence fully achieved too, and I see a critical part of my role as drawing together the best evidence from experts tackling this. Thank you to all of the ministerial colleagues and parliamentarians working alongside me on this critical agenda.

[HCWS707]