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Violence Against Women Campaign

Take Action Now to end violence against women!

Get involved with the campaign!

Would you like to pledge your support to the campaign? If so, become a ‘Supporter’.

Would you like to be contacted directly to help with letter writing, petitions or postcard campaigns? If so, become a ‘Campaigner’.

Would you like to be contacted directly to get involved in campaign actions such as visiting your MP to talk about the issues, taking part in events such as campaign photocalls or marches? If so, become an ‘Active Campaigner’.

Please contact us giving your name and telephone number, stating which of the above you would like to sign up to.

Read Isla Arendell's speech from the International Women's Day Million Women Rise rally in Trafalgar Square, London.

Read about our meetings with the Minister for Women.

First meeting - 29 January 2008

Second meeting - 19 February 2008

 

Why violence against women?
The WI is part of the End Violence Against Women campaigning coalition which aims to create a world in which women and girls are afforded their basic human rights and can live free from violence and its threat.

Violence Against Women (VAW) is a violation of women’s fundamental human rights and is both a cause and a consequence of women’s inequality. It includes: rape and sexual abuse of girls; female genital mutilation, forced and early marriage, stalking, crimes in the name of ‘honour’, trafficking and sexual exploitation, sexual harassment and domestic violence. VAW affects large numbers of women and girls and is most commonly perpetrated by known men.

The facts

  • Almost half of women in England and Wales experience at least one incident of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking.
  • The conviction rate for rape has fallen for three decades and now stands at 5.3% of reported rapes in England and Wales, and just 4.3% in Scotland.
  • 85% of victims of forced marriages are female.
  • An estimated 86,000 women living in the UK have undergone female genital mutilation and 7000 girls under 16 are currently at risk.
  • Thousands of women are trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation each year.

Please see the letter to WIs from Soroptimist International Tenby and District outlining their campaign to end female genital mutilation.