On 25 November, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the coalition-government launched a paper outlining their ambition and guiding principles to tackle violence against women and girls.
In the last year alone, there were over 1 million female victims of domestic abuse in England and Wales. Over 300,000 women are sexually assaulted and 60,000 women are raped each year. Overall in the UK, more than one in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, often with years of psychological abuse. This is unacceptable.
‘As women and as a society we have made great strides but we need to do more to ensure that women and future generations are not held back. My ambition is nothing less than ending violence against women and girls and our strategy document will outline our commitments to seeing this become a reality.’ Theresa May, Home Secretary.
Our vision is for a society in which no woman or girl has to live in fear of violence.
The principles of this vision are to:
- prevent violence from happening by challenging the attitudes and behaviours which foster it and intervening early where possible to prevent it
- provide adequate support where violence does occur
- work in partnership to obtain the best outcome for victims and their families
- take action to reduce the risk to women and girls who are victims of these crimes and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice
Read the paper: Call to end violence against women and girls at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/violence-against-women-girls/strategic-vision/
What is violence against women and girls?
‘Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.’ United Nations Declaration (1993) on the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
This declaration, which we have adopted, enshrines women’s right to live without the fear of violence and abuse. This is the first time that the government has agreed to work to a single definition and we will specifically include girls in our approach.
Violence against women and girls can include, but is not restricted to, domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, forced marriage, so-called ‘honour’ based violence, and female genital mutilation.