Jack Straw scraps reform of prostitute law to avoid prison officer strike

29 February 2008 in England, Government, Legal Police, Prostitution

* Jack Straw dropped measures to overhaul the law on prostitution yesterday to ensure that a Bill that prevents prison officers from striking is law by May. * It means that the Government has also abandoned a plan to scrap the term “common prostitute” from the statute book — 184 years after it was first [...]

Manager, North Devon Womens Aid

29 February 2008 in Vacancies, Women's Group

Hours: Full Time Salary: NJC Scale 33-39 £26,835 – £31, 606 North Devon Women’s Aid is a well-established charity providing support for women and their children, through our refuge and outreach services. We are an innovative and dynamic organization, taking the lead in many areas within the domestic violence and abuse field. We are committed [...]

Chair of Trustees, Domestic Violence Intervention Project (London)

29 February 2008 in Vacancies, Women's Group

2 days per month DVIP is an innovative voluntary sector project and registered charity. We aim to increase the safety of women and children experiencing domestic violence by providing a range of diverse services challenging men, supporting women, working in partnership, influencing policy and campaigning for change. Are you passionate about ending domestic violence? Could [...]

Gender Equality Gets a Drop of the Funding Bucket

27 February 2008 in Equality, Global

The United Nations has never run out of statistics to reinforce its arguments against one of the most troubling issues the world over: gender discrimination. The Asia Pacific region alone is losing between 42 billion and 47 billion dollars annually because of women’s limited access to employment opportunities, according to a U.N. study, and another [...]

UN campaign takes on violence against women

27 February 2008 in Campaign, Global, Violence Against Women

The United Nations launched on Monday a campaign to combat violence against women and girls, calling it a global scourge affecting a third of the world’s female population. “At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told [...]

£10m to battle domestic violence in Scotland

27 February 2008 in Domestic Violence, Scotland

A new £10m campaign to crack down on domestic violence is to be launched by the Scottish government. It is hoped the money will help reduce the misery caused by attacks and assaults in the home which is estimated to cost the country’s economy around £1.5bn a year. Latest figures estimate that there were 47,000 [...]

Report calls for changes to rape coverage in the media

27 February 2008 in England, Media, Rape and Sexual Assault

* Stereotypical media representations of rape are damaging conviction rates when cases come to court, according to a Home Office funded study. * The study recommends fundamental changes in the way rapes are reported in newspapers and broadcasts. The report, entitled Just Representations? Press Reporting and the Reality of Rape, concluded that highly selective and [...]

Sexual Violence Policy Monitoring Sub-group of the Women’s National Commission – February 2008 – Prostitution Q & A

27 February 2008 in England, Prostitution, Women's Group

1. Is prostitution a business like any other, which should be legalised? There are a number of reasons why prostitution is not just a business like any other. Women who sell sex report high levels of physical and sexual violence, including verbal abuse, threats and intimidation – one UK study of found that 63% of [...]

European Feminist Forum (EFF) June conference in Poland cancelled

27 February 2008 in Europe, Feminism, Women's Event, Women's Group

The EFF which was planned for 13-15 June 2008 in Warsaw, will not take place. The European networks that have been cooperating since 2006 on the platform for debate and sharing entitled European Feminist Forum have decided, due to financial reasons, that the culmination of the process with the conference will not take place. This [...]

Crossing borders, across genders – feminist issues in the 2000s

27 February 2008 in Feminism, Women's Event

Feminist Summit: The future of feminism in Europe An international summit discussing the status of contemporary feminism, the role of arts and media and the participation of women in business and politics. The summit will consist of a central opening discussion, two simultaneous roundtable discussion workshops and a concluding speech. As part of the annual [...]

The reorganisation of funding for work in the community in the UK

27 February 2008 in Research, Women's Group

Research into working conditions, everyday experience, strategies and policy development in women’s organisations I would like to invite your organisation and the people working for it to participate in my research project on working conditions and everyday experience in care and community work for women in London. The following will give you a short overview [...]

WLUML Vacancy: Finance and Administrative Officer

27 February 2008 in Vacancies, Women's Group

Position: Finance and Administrative Officer Part-time: 3 full working days per week Location: London (Archway) Salary: Negotiable The London-based International Coordination Office (ICO) of Women Living Under Muslim Laws – International Solidarity Network (WLUML) is currently inviting applications for the position of a part-time Finance and Administrative Officer. WLUML is a not-for-profit organisation. The role [...]

Jobcentre ad seeking women to pose for sleazy webcams

23 February 2008 in Government, Pornography

Internet porn barons are advertising in a jobcentre for unemployed women to strip and talk dirty on the web for paying perverts. The ad – offering wages of £10 an hour – is on show in the jobcentre in Clapham Common Old Town, where job seekers use touch-screen computers to search for work. It attempts [...]

Statement from the Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution (FCAP) regarding Steve Wright found guilty of murdering five young women involved in prostitution in Ipswich

23 February 2008 in Prostitution, Violence Against Women

The Feminist Coalition Against Prostitution (FCAP) welcomes the verdict in Ipswich and hopes the sentence reflects justice for the five young women murdered and their families and friends who are dealing with this tragic loss. This case proves that prostitution can NEVER be safe. Mr Wright, in his defence, presented himself as a normal ‘punter’, [...]

The Solicitor-General Vera Baird, QC responds to claims by Women Against Rape that the Government hasn’t done enough to secure justice for rape victims

23 February 2008 in England, Government, Rape and Sexual Assault

Read the open letter to the Solicitor-General from Women Against Rape I welcome the opportunity to respond to the article by Women Against Rape published on February 11. Long before I became a Minister, I, too, was a campaigner for justice for victims of rape; now I have responsibility for the prosecution of rape and [...]

Abolish No Recourse to Public Funds; End Violence Against Women!

23 February 2008 in Domestic Violence, England, Violence Against Women, Women's Group

A call for direct action! Support the Day of Action: 23 April 2008 Leading women’s groups and charities including Southall Black Sisters, Amnesty International UK, National Women’s Aid (England), Refuge, Imkaan, Newham Asian Women’s Project, Women’s Resource Centre and many others, are calling for a day of mass action on 23 April 2007, to protest [...]

Helping Mansfield and Ashfield Women’s Aid

23 February 2008 in Domestic Violence, Women's Group

Mansfield and Ashfield Women’s Aid has been awarded a grant of £5,000 to help raise awareness of the service it provides. The charity has been given the funds by the Nationwide Foundation — a grant provider financed by Nationwide Building Society — to help tackle the problem of domestic violence. Linda Faulkner, finance administrator at [...]

‘Make the Change’ domestic violence programme to be expanded

23 February 2008 in Domestic Violence

A successful programme that helps change the behaviour of abusive men towards their partners has been made more widely accessible by Somerset County Council. The Make the Change initiative is run by Somerset Change, a division of Relate, and helps men address the factors that can lead to abusive behaviour. Since the project began in [...]

‘Inspire a Change – Stop Domestic Violence’, in aid of the Mayo Women’s Refuge

23 February 2008 in Benefit, Domestic Violence, Eire, Women's Group

Transition Year (TY) students highlight horror of domestic violence They may be County Mayo’s only entrants in the Young Social Innovators project for this school year, but the Transition Year (TY) students of Davitt College, Castlebar, sure knew how to pull an emotionally-charged punch at yesterday’s (Monday’s) presentation on domestic violence. “My name is Chris/I [...]

The Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA) International has stressed the urgent need to educate people on the use of condoms

23 February 2008 in Abortion Contraception, Africa, HIV/AIDS, Prostitution, Women's Group

This, it believes would go a long way to help fight against the spread of the world’s most dreaded enemy, the HIV/AIDS virus. The organization has thus called for a review of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) law, which was enacted at a congress in the United State of America five years [...]