— Freedom Without Fear Event: Culture, the Cuts and...

In advance of the launch of the next VAWG strategy, we are calling on government to take a number of steps to address this:

1. A specific central fund for local specialist,  BME women led ending VAWG services. The fund would need also be administered centrally, in recognition that local commissioning is largely failing specialist BME women’s organisations.

2. Working towards a grants based model, while strengthening the messaging to local commissioners in order to ensure that they comply with the relevant legislation

3. Establishing an independent body / structure to strengthen the accountability pathways e.g. a VAWG Ombuds.

On 21st November, women from Apna Haq in Rotherham, the latest BME VAWG service to be threatened with closure, will be marching on Downing Street to demand Immediate central government action to support BME services to continue delivering life saving vital services to address and stop VAWG in Rotherham and in our communities across the UK.

Imkaan has been commissioned by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to collate the views of women and girls affected by gender-based violence via a series of focus groups and interviews to inform the development of the second London VAWG strategy.  This work provides the opportunity for women and girls to influence future planning in London. We would like to involve:

• Former-service users of voluntary sector specialist provision, statutory services and criminal justice agencies.  This will include women exiting prostitution.
• BME (Black, Minority and Ethnic) women and girls including those who have experienced forced marriage, female genital mutilation and “honour”-based violence.
• Young women under the age of 18 including those who have been/are associated to gangs.
• We will explore any barriers to accessing service provision e.g. disability, sexual identity, and age.

The objective of this piece is to obtain the perspectives of women and girls to strengthen our understanding of service gaps and needs, pathways through which women and girls in London access protection and support and identification of promising practice in prevention work.  We will also develop recommendations on effective service models, and a report will be produced in June 2013.

If you work in this area and would like to contribute to the project please contact ika@imkaan.org.uk or call 020 7250 3933. 

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Over the past two weeks, Marai Larasi (Executive Director at Imkaan) has contributed to five sessions at the Commission on the Status of Women; for the UN, the Home Office, the Canadian Government, and two NGO forums.  Marai also lobbied on behalf of UK VAWG services at other sessions during this time.  

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the United Nation’s principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women.  Every year, representatives of Member States gather at United Nations Headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide.  

You can view some of Marai’s contributions to this year’s CSW on our Resources page, under ‘External Contributions and Mentions’.

The CSW has now agreed conclusions on the elimination and prevention of all forms of VAWG.  Amongst the agreed conclusions, Imkaan particularly welcomes those that promote equal access to education, encourage appropriate responses to VAWG by statutory services, recognise the specific needs of women in conflict and post-conflict situations, migrants, and women with HIV, and the important role of the media and ICT in eliminating VAWG.

We have provided a small briefing on the agreed conclusions on our website here, and the full list of agreed conclusions should be available on the CSW website soon.

While there is much work to be done, the CSW conclusions present a critical opportunity for states to implement, strengthen and monitor the work to eliminate and prevent all forms of violence against women and girls.  We will continue to lobby UK government to encourage targeted efforts to ensure that the conclusions are adopted to strengthen existing work on VAWG in the UK.

This three day programme is aimed at Black and ‘minority ethnic’ (BME) women working/volunteering within the BME-led ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) sector and/or within BME community organisations working around issues of VAWG. Your organisation / group may be working around specific types of VAWG e.g. female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage (FM), domestic violence (DV), sexual violence (SV) or may be working with all forms of VAWG.

This course is being delivered as part of the London VAWG Consortium (Ascent) programme of activities.

For more information and to book, click here.

Imkaan is working with UN Women to support the establishment of a Regional Expert Working Group (REWG) on intersectional discrimination and violence against women. The REWG will offer a unique opportunity for women’s organisation to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, including the UN and the Council of Europe (CoE) on issues of law reform and policy development.

As part of this process Imkaan would like to connect with organisations using an intersectional approach in their work to address violence against women (VAW). This is within a broader mandate of identifying organisations who would be interested in contributing to a wider process of research and advocacy into the opportunities and challenges in the area of VAW in the Western Balkan countries and Turkey.  Over the next few months Imkaan would like to arrange visits to your organisations where we can discuss the nature of your work, the types of issues you deal with and the population groups being supported by you, as well as barriers that you face in your work.

At the end of this consultation Imkaan along with UN Women will identify potential participants for the REWG. The REWG will be responsible for:

• Identifying opportunities and challenges for implementing an intersectional approach to ending VAWG in the implementation and monitoring of the Istanbul Convention, CEDAW national reports and the EU accession process.

• It will also contribute towards regional research and recommendations on law reform, policy development, and provision of support services for women and girls from the most vulnerable and marginalised communities.

Please do get in touch with us

• If you are an organisation that works in the area of violence against women and girls, particularly with minoritised groups,

• If you lead initiatives which are innovative and intersectional in their approach and have minoritised women as part of your core leadership.

• We are particularly interested in programmes/organisations that are led by minoritised women for minoritised women. We would love to hear more about you and your work.

Please email neha@imkaan.org.uk and leah@imkaan.org.uk no later than 30th October stating:
- the name of your organisation
- the country (and city/town/village) in which you work
- the population group (s) you work with
- your organisational aims and how you use an intersectional approach in your work on VAWG

We will then get in touch with you, arrange a Skype conversation followed by a potential visit to your organisation. We look forward to hearing from you!