Violence Against Women

The WNC Violence Against Women Working Group

The WNC Violence Against Women (VAW) Group first met in February 2002 in response to priorities set by WNC partners at the WNC Future Female Conference and subsequent report in 2001. The aim of the Group is to bring a cohesive voice of the VAW sector to Government.

Together the Group has many years of experience in this area. Professor Liz Kelly, Director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU) chairs the Group and members comprise of representatives from such organisations as Women’s Aid Federation of England, Refuge, Scottish Women's Aid, Welsh Women's Aid, Northern Ireland Women's Aid, the South East Essex Rape and Incest Crisis Centre, WOMANKIND Worldwide, IMKAAN, Southall Black Sisters, the TUC, Church organisations as well as many academics specialising in the field. Representatives from the Home Office, Department of Health, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Women and Equality Unit frequently attend Group meetings, giving it a valuable link to Government decision-makers.

The working group meets quarterly and currently includes sub-groups of experts who focus on specific fields. These fields are:

Domestic Violence
Sexual Violence

The WNC Domestic Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-group

The Domestic Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-group monitors Government policy on Domestic Violence and engages with policy makers to help inform policy. The Group is made up of service providers and academics and liaises closely with Home Office officials on all aspects of domestic violence. The Group is co-chaired by Nicola Harwin Chief Executive of Women's Aid Federation of England and Hannana Siddiqui Joint Co-ordinator of Southall Black Sisters.

In 2003, the WNC was commissioned by the Home Office to lead a series of 12 consultation workshops with domestic violence survivors to ensure women’s voices were represented in the proposals for the forthcoming Domestic Violence Bill. The workshops included one specifically for women from black and ethnic minority communities. Following the consultations, the WNC published “Unlocking the Secret: Women Open the Door on Domestic Violence” in December 2003. The report provides a comprehensive account of what was said in the workshops and builds on the recommendations made to the Home Office. The report was launched on 2 December at the conference “International Approaches to Preventing Domestic Violence: Challenges and opportunities for Law and Practice,” a joint venture between Women’s Aid, the Women’s National Commission, the Greater London Domestic Violence Project and Womankind Worldwide. Unlocking the secret: Women Open the Door on Domestic Violence (pdf 720Kb).

The WNC Sexual Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-group

The Sexual Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-group monitors Government policy on Sexual Violence and engages with policy makers to help inform policy. The Group is also made up of service providers and academics and liaises closely with Home Office officials on all aspects of sexual violence including trafficking and FGM. The Group is Chaired by Professor Liz Kelly.

Rape Crisis Centre funding - Article by WNC Chair in New Statesman

On 19 March, Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, announced a cross-departmental £1million emergency fund to put a brake on the closure of more Rape Crisis Centres.
End Violence Against Women, Rape Crisis and others have warmly welcome this announcement. There is widespread concern about this issue and the New Statesman is currently running a month-long campaign to secure proper funding for Rape Crisis Centres. You can access WNC Chair, Joyce Gould's article, along with other articles from the violence sector at the New Statesman Website.

Map of Gaps, a report published by the End Violence Against Women Campaign and the Equality and Human Rights Commission last year, showed that most women across the UK don't have access to a Rape Crisis Centre. Moreover, a third of local authorities have no specialised services at all (including domestic violence refuges). A recent report (executive summary) by the Women's Resource Centre and Rape Crisis England and Wales shows that there are currently just 38 affiliated centres. Nine centres have closed in the last five years and eight centres have no secure funding for 2008-09. This is a crucial support service, particularly for women with historic experiences of sexual violence (such as childhood sexual abuse). A briefing which clearly sets out the difference between Rape Crisis Centres and Sexual Assault Referral Centres can be downloaded here Rape Crisis Centres and SARCS.

The End Violence Against Women Campaign

In Summer 2004, the WNC VAW Working Group linked its knowledge and expertise with the lobbying and campaigning power of Amnesty International UK (AIUK) to influence governments of the UK to develop and implement an integrated, joined-up VAW strategy.

The Group is part of the End Violence Against Women (EVAW) Coalition Campaign (external link), an unprecedented and growing group of organisations, including many of the leading women’s organisations working in the sector, the TUC, Amnesty International UK and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.

The EVAW Coalition Campaign is the result of calls from the sector for Government to act on its commitment to the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) Strategic Objective D.1 to ‘take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women’. If you would like to lend you or your organisations support to the campaign email Holly Dustin at Amnesty International UK.

One of the earliest products of this partnership was the report, What a Waste. The Case for an Integrated Violence Against Women Strategy (pdf 353Kb), which was commissioned by the WNC, funded by AIUK and authored by WNC member organisation, the CWASU. The report argued that current initiatives to tackle VAW tended to take place in ‘silos’: there is a clear separation in Government thinking between domestic violence, sexual violence, forced marriage, rape, trafficking, killings in the name of honour, stalking and other forms of VAW. It states that in order to tackle VAW effectively, action must be based on the recognition that all the different forms of VAW are connected/integrated (as formally recognised already by Scotland and some local authorities) and the response to it should be similarly integrated. 'What a Waste' also argues that a VAW strategy must include: a commitment to prevention/a long-term approach; clear and measurable goals/priorities, coordinated measures addressing the various forms of abuse; and monitoring the impact of interventions on the prevalence and seriousness of abuse, to benefit both women and the Government.

The Coalition has also responded to the Governments consultation on the development of the Public Sector Duty to Promote Gender Equality (Word 45 Kb) (attachment Word 87 Kb).

The Making the Grade Report

In November 2005, as a follow-on from “What a Waste”, the EVAW Coalition Campaign, produced Making the Grade? An independent analysis of Government initiatives on violence against women (external link), which was the first in what is to be an annual examination of Government departments’ performance in tackling VAW. The report highlighted the lack of coordination between departments and that many do not understand the relevance of VAW to their work. This report process was repeated this year, when The End Violence Against Women Campaign published Making the Grade? the second annual independent analysis of Government initiatives on violence against women (pdf 1.47Mb) on 23rd November 2006 and the Executive Summary Making the Grade (pdf 149 Kb).

Consultation Responses

The WNC Violence Against Women Working Group continues to respond to various consultation papers. Click on the links below to view the relevant document.