In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11,
Councillor George Potter to propose, and Councillor
Fiona White to second the following motion:
“Council notes
that:
- Sexual violence,
sexual harassment, and domestic abuse remain endemic in our
society:
- In 2019/20, 4.9
million women were victims of sexual assault in England and Wales,
according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
- A third of
16-18-year-old girls report experiencing unwanted sexual touching
at school, according to End Violence Against Women.
- The pandemic has made
the situation worse:
- The ONS report into
Domestic abuse during the pandemic in November 2020 found increased
demand for victim services and indicators that severity of abuse
has increased.
- Plan International UK
found that since lockdown began, 1 in 5 girls aged 14-21
experienced public sexual harassment.
- By 2030, 2 million
more girls are now at risk of undergoing Female Genital Mutilation
(FGM) due to the pandemic according to Plan
International.
- The justice system is
failing many victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence:
- Out of 139,000 rapes
estimated by the ONS in the year ending March 2020, only 58,845
were reported to police. Of those, just 2.4% ended in
convictions.
- Three in four
domestic abuse cases in England and Wales end without charge,
according to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire
and Rescue Services.
- Those from minority
backgrounds experience domestic abuse disproportionately:
- ONS figures for 2019
show that disabled women were more than twice as likely to
experience domestic abuse than non-disabled women.
- LGBT+ people are
significantly more likely to experience domestic abuse, with 13 per
cent of bisexual women facing intimate partner abuse in 2019/20,
according to Stonewall.
- In 2019, 60 per cent
of UK police forces admitted referring victims of crime to the Home
Office for immigration purposes, harming migrant women.
- The Domestic Abuse
Act 2021, whilst very welcome, still contains policy gaps,
including failure to provide equal protection for migrant
women.
- The funding for
domestic abuse services in the 2021 Budget falls short of the
figure that Women's Aid says is needed by over £200 million
per year.
- The UK has failed to
ratify the Istanbul Convention, a treaty creating a global
framework for protecting women from violence.
Council believes
that:
- Everyone, regardless
of identity, has the right to live a life free from fear and
violence.
- Current systems and
services do not properly tackle continuing violence against women
and girls in our society due to underfunding, ingrained culture of
victim blaming and lack of available education and
training.
- Investing in raising
awareness, education, and policies aimed at prevention is vital and
prevents greater costs long-term.
- An intersectional
approach to violence against women and girls is imperative to
provide high level care and support to the most vulnerable
victims.
- Disclosures of abuse
must be made easier and always taken seriously by authorities who
offer a trauma-informed response.
VI.
Perpetrators of serious violence usually have a
history of inflicting abuse and harassment against other women and
girls. Tackling violence against women and girls means dismantling
this culture.
- Ending violence
against women and girls must be a top priority for all levels of
government.
Council resolves:
That the Executive be requested:
- To recognise misogyny as a hate
crime.
- To find ways to help support members
of our diverse communities who may need specialist care and
help.
- To ensure that Guildford Borough
Council continues to do everything in its power to build a borough
free from misogyny and violence against women and girls. This
includes continuing to invest in vital services, listening and
responding to women and girls about the action needed, and calling
out misogyny and sexism wherever we see or hear it.
- To work with Surrey Police on
improving women’s safety in Guildford borough.
- To continue to work with local and
national networks working to end violence against women and
girls
- To become a White Ribbon Accredited
Organisation. https://www.whiteribbon.org.uk/organisations
Council calls on Surrey Police to:
a.
record harassment of women and girls as a hate crime as soon as
possible, not wait until they are required to do so
b.
prioritise investigating crimes against women and girls and ask
them to ensure that women and girls are treated with the required
sensitivity.
Council calls on Surrey County Council to:
a.
encourage the teaching of age-appropriate education on consent from
primary school.
b.
work with schools and families to tackle toxic masculinity culture,
and to educate men through campaigns and bringing in male
“allies”.
Council calls on the Government to:
- Increase efforts to prevent and
detect violence against women and girls by:
- Funding an NHS-style public
awareness campaign as soon as possible, including on long-lasting
trauma impacts.
- Consulting education leaders and the
specialist violence against women and girls sector, to take immediate action on sexual
harassment in schools and higher education.
- Implementing guidance to include
awareness of public sexual harassment and its consequences in the
national curriculum.
- Upskilling all school staff via
training to ensure confidence in correctly and sensitively handling
disclosures of a sexual or abusive nature.
- Introducing a duty on public
authorities to ensure all frontline staff are trained to detect and
respond appropriately to domestic abuse.
- Improving cross-government
coordination of policies and services for separating families
across England and Wales.
- Establishing a plan to tackle the
social recovery of vulnerable and at-risk women and girls following
the pandemic.
- Ensuring the child’s safety
and needs are put first when decisions are made as to the
appropriate level of contact with an abusive parent.
- Improve outcomes for victims of
sexual violence and domestic abuse by:
- Ensuring migrant women have equal
access to protection from abuse.
- Introducing training and guidance
for organisations on making their services more trans
inclusive.
- Offering a long-term funding model
for specialist services, including specialist BAME and LGBT+
services, so they can plan strategically and fully focus on
providing support.
- Introducing mandatory training for
police and the Crown Prosecution Service in understanding the
impact of trauma on victims.
- Improving access to independent
legal support for victims, including those with no recourse to
public funds.
- Introducing mandatory awareness
training for local authority Children’s Services staff to
enable them to appropriately examine and record allegations of
domestic abuse which may present as parental conflict.
- Ensuring appropriate support is
available for those who do not flee from their abuser.
h.
Giving Local Authorities the duty and funding to provide
appropriate accommodation and support for survivors of abuse
- Strengthen the justice system to
properly deal with sexual violence and domestic abuse by:
- Urgently increasing funding to
reduce Criminal and Family court backlogs.
- Extending protections of 16 and
17-year-olds by expanding the definition of 'position of trust', to
include all adults who work/volunteer with under-18s.
- Legislating to make public sexual
harassment a criminal offence.
- Legislating to make the promotion of
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) a hate crime.
- Establish the UK as a leader in
domestic and global efforts to end violence against women and girls
by:
- Ratifying the Istanbul Convention as
soon as possible.
- Setting up an independent commission
on 'Ending Violence Against Women and Girls' for ongoing,
sustainable accountability and progress in domestic and global
efforts.”