Crime: Domestic Violence

Baroness Gardner of Parkes Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2014 Grand Committee

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, I valued the contribution of the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton. Her comments about the present situation were clear and detailed, and I strongly support her case that there should be a detailed consideration of criminalising this issue.

My reason for speaking is that I was involved with these issues quite a long time ago when I was the UK representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. At that time, when I had to make a speech for the UK, of course I had to seek permission but I said, “I would like to admit that we have domestic violence in the UK”. It was agreed that I could make that statement, and it had a dramatic effect because we were the first nation ever to make a statement in the UN admitting to having domestic violence. All the tiny countries that had suffered from similar things for years and years suddenly felt unafraid to speak out on the issue. That was really quite important and brought it out into the open.

Things have moved on a long way but everything takes a long time to move on, whatever field you are in. What the noble Lord, Lord Paddick, said was very interesting. The one category that neither he nor the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, mentioned was the men who are attacked by women. That is the one missing group, and they do exist. Over tea in your Lordships’ House, someone said to me, “Be sure not to forget the number of men who are attacked by women”. This should not be overlooked. This same criminal law should apply to anyone. There should not be violence.

I was asked to go to Brazil, where they were rewriting the constitution and were writing a section on women. Bella Abzug, the very famous American Congresswoman—the first woman to stand up and demand that Nixon be impeached—was there. She is famous for that; she is also famous for creating the Ms title instead of Miss or Mrs. She said, “Why do I have to define what I am when the other side does not have to?”. She told me that the American constitution had just two lines that covered everything for women, making life and opportunities equal and everything else, whereas as the meeting went on the Brazilians became more and more determined to make it wider and wider. Lots of people were there representing Brazil, rather than the one or two who represented other countries. I made my speech and said, “Listening to this, I get the impression we want to abolish men entirely. That is not what I believe”. Over lunch, the interpreter said to me, “We thanked heaven when you made that statement”, because it was getting to the point where it had become quite unrealistic.

Turning to the more realistic side in Brazil, we were taken to see the São Paulo police facilities; we did not see the prison but just heard about it. They told us that they had special care and special treatment for women who had suffered domestic violence. This was in the early 1980s, long before any such thing was thought of here. Indeed, people came from all over the world to see how effective the Brazilian system was. Fortunately, we have seen a lot of this change now and people are treated better. Particularly after rape cases they were very helpful, and it is a terrible time for anyone.

Those were the days when Erin Pizzey was running a refuge and Sandra Horley was very involved in helping women. Of course, domestic violence did not affect just the women themselves because they often had children who needed refuge as well. The women had to face the problem of finding new school places for their children and it could be very difficult. However, at least there were people to help them.

I turn now to coercive behaviour, which is much better known about today. I think that it is every bit as bad as physical abuse. People live in fear of what will happen. They do not feel that they possess the right to do what they want to do in life because they are controlled by others. That is not good because fear can destroy people’s lives. We have to deal with this issue. I know that in March 2013 the Home Office changed the definition of coercive behaviour, but the law has not been changed to match it. That is what is being asked for in this Question, and I am very much in favour of it.

In many ways these issues have been in the public domain for longer than I had realised. Dickens wrote about how abusive Bill Sikes was to Nancy in Oliver Twist, so these things are on the record, even though they were not really topics for public discussion. I have heard that a major Home Office conference is to be held on 22 July that will cover female genital mutilation, forced early marriage and domestic violence. It is to the credit of Theresa May that she is bringing forward such a conference, which I think will be welcomed by everyone.

I end by saying that there is a time lag between awareness and action. We are all aware of these things, and now it is time to take action.