FiLiA Response to Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy Consultation
The government asked for views to help inform the development of its next Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. What follows is FiLiA’s submission to this consultation:
'FiLiA' means daughter; we are the daughters of the women who came before us and we fight so that our daughters may be free. We are a women-led volunteer organisation. We started in 2012 and the focus of our work has been our annual FiLiA Women’s Rights Conference, which we have hosted since 2013. Our conference has platformed hundreds of speakers from 49 countries. FiLiA also takes part in other activities including art exhibitions, consultations, campaigns, and projects. Since 2013 we have moved to a 2-day event, taken the conference out of London, and have gained charitable status. Our charitable aims are:
♀ To promote human rights (as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent United Nations conventions/declarations) with an emphasis on women's rights throughout the world
♀ To promote equality and diversity, in particular equality between women and men, and to eliminate gender discrimination.
♀ To promote art for the benefit of the public, with an emphasis on the art of women, especially socially excluded women, by the provision of an art exhibition at the annual conference, and other collaborations
FiLiA’s mission is to contribute to the Women’s Liberation Movement by:
♀ Building Sisterhood and Solidarity (locally, nationally, globally)
♀ Amplifying the voices of Women (particularly those less often heard or purposefully silenced)
♀ Defending Women’s human rights
In responding to this consultation we endorse the responses, thoughts, and knowledge provided by sister organisations: Southall Black Sisters , Safety 4 Sisters, The Angelou Centre, and Latin American Women's Rights Service as shared in a blog on our website on January 14th this year. We also endorse the work of EVAW and Imkaan in their Joint Principles Launch on February 11th this year; our response is informed by their eight recommendations.
1 A definition of Violence Against Women and Girls which upholds the established international and human rights-based definitions of VAWG and delivers an integrated approach to tackling VAWG in all its forms.
We feel it’s important here to state that we are talking about violence and abuse that women are subjected to because of their sex. These crimes are part of the systemic oppression of women as a sex class that is still part of women and girls’ life in 2021. This is experienced in, and exacerbated by the criminal justice system, the social care system, the welfare and benefits system, and the health care system resulting in poorer outcomes for women especially those further marginalised because of their race, class, sexuality, or disability.
Violence against women and girls incorporates a plethora of crimes and behaviours and it is NOT helpful to separate out domestic abuse in another strategy. In fact, having two separate strategies will cause increased pressure on women’s organisations supporting survivors of VAWG through the duplication of reporting, monitoring, and advocacy. The sector is already overworked, exhausted and under-resourced due to exceptionally high demand created by years of austerity and now the Covid-19 pandemic. It will cause even more strain on smaller specialist organisations, for example specialised providers for minoritised women, since it will require even more resources to engage with multiple consultations on VAWG, DA and other similar strategies. If the government does work to two separate strategies, there is also risk that this will encourage a move away from recognising that domestic abuse is also disproportionately male violence on women.
The definitions of VAWG within the Istanbul Convention allows for a standardisation of understandings of VAWG across UK nations, which is particularly important for funding, commissioning and multi-agency working. Women’s lives are not fragmented, and neither can society’s response to the violence they experience.
2 A commitment to ensuring equal protection for all women in accessing their rights.
The current ‘Hostile Environment’ is a state-sanctioned abuse of the rights of migrant women. Safety4Sisters reported that 100% of the women with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) who were referred to them and wanted a refuge space were refused due to their NRPF conditions. The report Step Up Migrant Women led by the Latin American Women’s Rights Service has found that some police officers can act as immigration enforcement agents rather than acting to protect and investigate crimes reported by women with immigration issues due to a lack of clear rules. When migrant women need to access safety and support because they are experiencing violence and abuse, that safety should be provided regardless of their immigration status. Every woman according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (Article 2: The rights in the UDHR belong to everyone, no matter who we are, where we are from, or whatever we believe. Article 3: We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety) has the right to protection of their life and their safety surpasses any government immigration policy. A new VAWG strategy must incorporate safety provision for women irrespective of their immigration status.
3 A VAWG strategy that tackles the systemic barriers that prevent Black and minoritised women, migrant women, deaf and disabled women, and Lesbians and Bisexual women from receiving protection and support.
To understand and address VAWG, the government must recognise that inequality is rooted in patriarchy and must apply a broad framework involving the structures, institutions, and cultures of society. We are clear that women and girls hold many diverse experiences, and by locating policy in such experiences, we aim to address the nature of structural sex inequality and patriarchy and the power and control dynamics embedded in such systems. The essential services provided by the ‘by and for’ sector for black and minoritised women has been decimated in recent years. 50% of Black and minoritised women’s specialist refuges have been forced to close or have been taken over by a larger provider due to lack of funding in the last decade, whilst others continue to operate without any local government support. This must be addressed urgently. Our global majority sisters have the knowledge and skills to provide safety, protection, and support, and must be given the resources needed to enable it. This means understanding and acknowledging the importance of “by and for” specialist services that meet the needs of Black and minoritised women and enable them to see themselves in the services they are supported by.
For disabled women, who are twice as likely to experience domestic abuse than non-disabled women, the paucity of appropriate refuge accommodation is felt even more sharply as less than 1% of refuges are wheelchair accessible. Deaf women or women who face communication barriers have reported being refused access to refuge on account of health and safety concerns. The needs of disabled women must be addressed (in all provision) and specialist services resourced to enable them to provide support and protection to women regardless of the disabilities they live with.
Lesbians and bisexual women who are subjected to abuse are rarely recognised in service provision. Although excellent services like GALOP exist, they are not funded to provide the diversity of support required. We have seen provision increase for both gay men and the trans community but specific services for lesbians are rare and poorly resourced. Like so called ‘BAME’ communities, LGB&T are not a homogenous group and have differing needs, all of which need to be accounted for.
4 Embedding prevention and early intervention throughout the VAWG Strategy
As stated, these crimes and behaviours are part of the systemic oppression of women as a sex class; we need to work with children and young people to change those attitudes. We are seeing an increase in the use of gendered language, toys, clothes, and gender expectations. FiLiA believes that children (and adults) should be able to express themselves however they wish and that doing so should not assign them to any particular role. Equality comes from recognising the equal value of boys who want to nurture and girls who want to build. This respect for boys’ and girls’ behaviour also applies to their relationships. We should be supporting young people to develop and expect relationships that respect them as whole human beings not ‘sex roles’ within that relationship. Gail Dines from Culture Reframed showed that nearly 90% of the most-viewed porn scenes contain sexual, physical, and verbal violence against women and that of the top 50 UK porn sites, 78% advertise schoolgirl rape or teen rape. Sexual violence perpetrators show high levels of use of violent and degrading porn. Tighter measures and education that debunks and challenges the rape myths that porn perpetuates need to be put in place.
5 Supporting the sustainable and equitable provision of ‘by and for’ specialist services.
We define women only VAWG specialist organisations as the ‘by and for’ expert sector. This term refers to specialist services that are designed and delivered by and for the users and communities they serve. For women facing additional barriers to accessing support, ‘by and for’ services are an essential provision. They should not be viewed as an optional extra, but as an essential and intrinsic part of any locality’s VAWG provision. It is incumbent on local areas to know their local population and the needs that arise from it. Women from minoritised communities need services that have a cultural understanding of the issues they are facing. It is important that within these services, women only space and provision is maintained; it is an injustice that many women can’t access a service run by people who look like them, but it’s unacceptable that it is staffed by, or includes people who look like their abuser. Single sex provision is protected in law and the government should provide clear guidance to ensure its protected in practice.
6 Providing secure, national multi-year funding settlement for the specialist VAWG sector.
Funding is the constant battle that services face, and many lose. Short-term funding means that staff spend so much time sourcing funding that the time available to actually provide that service is reduced. Many (especially small specialist services) lose out to huge corporates like generic housing or crime support services, not because they do not have the expertise or knowledge; but because they don’t have the time or resources to be able to respond to the variety of department, local, and central government bids that are promoted. Large generic organisations may have the resources and specialist knowledge to complete a successful bid, but they will not have the local and specialist knowledge, or the history and trust of a local community. The sector needs a holistic VAWG strategy and framework (a high government priority, championed by ministers). As well as long-term, sustainable funding, including ring-fenced funding for “by and for” services. The government should give incentives for local authorities to pool funding and prioritise VAWG provision in their local plans.
7 Recognition of the importance of partnerships and multi-agency working.
VAWG is an issue that affects the whole community, and so the whole community must be part of the response to it. Every agency who has a responsibility for dealing with victims of violence, their children and/or perpetrators, must work effectively within their own agency (and with all other agencies who also have that responsibility) to secure the safety of the victim and their children, and hold perpetrators to account. The process by which this work is integrated and managed is known as the Coordinated Community Response. Agencies must work within an effective partnership including statutory, voluntary, independent, and community groups to provide a holistic response. An excellent example of how to maintain a successful partnership can be found in Standing Together’s In-search-of-excellence.
By working in partnership with other services supporting disadvantaged women we can ensure that a VAWG response is available to some of the most marginalised women. Substance misuse services, mental health provision and services supporting women in prostitution should be an integral part of any VAWG response. We know they are at high risk of violence and abuse and the complex issues they live with should serve to enhance the response to them, not diminish it.
8 A focus on prevention and quality assured perpetrator interventions
Whilst recognising the culture in which VAWG exists, when looking for the reason a woman is hurt by male violence, the responsibility is with the individual man who hurt her, and he must be held accountable. Funding for work with perpetrators should never come from funds intended for victims and survivors. The criminal justice system must be swifter in response to crimes committed, and especially to breaches in court orders or bail. There are often multiple breaches with seemingly no action taken. The number of rape prosecutions decreased by more than 50% in just two years, between 2016/17 and 2018/19 which was a record decline, according to the CPS's own figures. Women feel that rape has been effectively decriminalised in recent years and perpetrators are able to act with impunity. The Family Justice System has been a haven for perpetrators of domestic abuse for years. Women’s Aid report, Domestic abuse, human rights and the family courts showed a culture of disbelief, including negative stereotypes about survivors of domestic abuse and disturbing examples where domestic abuse and child abuse were obscured by allegations of parental alienation against the non-abusive parent. We need to be assured that any perpetrator interventions, are safe, effective, and cost efficient. If perpetrators cannot exist in society without being a threat to women, then they should not be at large at all. In order to develop a consistent approach to perpetrators of VAWG the government should develop a robust perpetrator strategy.
In conclusion,
We need one effective, holistic VAWG strategy that recognises and addresses the inequality that women experience, and the culture in which VAWG exists. It needs to be funded sustainably to make long term and permanent change. Women that are minoritised because of the race, class, disability, sexuality, or immigration status should have access to specialist ‘by and for’ services appropriate to their needs. Women only services, need to be protected and maintained.