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Report by Dr Geetanjali Gangoli, Coordinating Officer, Violence Against Women
 Research Group, School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol.

 

Old Stories, New Lives: Report of a National Conference Marking the International Day of Action Against Violence Against Women and Southall Black Sisters’ 25th Anniversary.

 

Old Stories, New Lives was a conference aimed to bring together policy-makers and practitioners to develop ‘best practice guidelines’ on tackling violence on black and minority ethnic (BME) women. Keynote speakers included Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland; lawyer Indira Jaising, working on human rights and  violence against women in India; London School of Economics researcher Dr Purna Sen, and Hannana Siddiqui, joint coordinator of SBS.

The event featured six workshops examining issues of immigration and asylum, current provision of housing, refuge, support and advocacy services , child protection, health and mental health, policing and the courts, and on rape and sexual violence. The Home Minister Baroness Scotland spoke about the new domestic violence bill, and the importance of looking at issues of BME women. Hananna Siddiqui, however was of the opinion that the new bill was a ‘lost opportunity’ to address issues for women of insecure immigration status, refugee women and asylum seekers. She also felt that the discourse of multi culturalism homogenised minority communities and rendered the needs of BME women invisible. Indira Jaisingh compared issues of domestic violence and minority women’s rights in India and the UK, and felt that a major difference between India and the UK, was that in India, domestic violence was never treated as a gender neutral terms. She spoke about the dilemmas of minority women in India, caught in the cross fire between community pressures and their own rights, and ways in which this had created a rift within the women’s movement. Purna Sen spoke about how no country or context in the world protected the rights of minority communities and women, and the possible ways in which international conventions such as CEDAW could help in doing so.

            I attended the workshop on rape and sexual abuse, chaired by Purna Sen. The workshop discussed rape, sexual abuse and sexual harassment and trafficking for prostitution and forced marriage. One of the issues that were discussed was the connections between of community pressures, institutionalised racism and the high attrition rate in rape cases for BME women. Research suggests that there is not much difference in the reporting rate of BME women but the rate of conviction for cases involving the rape of BME women was much lower as compared to majority women. The group also looked at the ways in which there were myths about trafficking (the resurgence of the white slave trade discourse that focussed primarily on trafficking from Eastern European countries for instance) that invisibilised the trafficking of BME women from other countries and contexts, and the need to tackle this. In addition the denial of residence rights to trafficked women was highlighted, including rights to housing, social security etc. There was some debate on forced marriages and proposals to protect minors sent abroad to marry against their will were debated. The lack of research on rape within BME communities was highlighted.

 

Recommendations from the workshop:

  • Need to have more research on sexual abuse, rape and BME women.
  • There should be a unit within immigration that deals with trafficking of women.
  • Trafficked persons should have the right to free and quality legal advice and the right to claim asylum or residence status, as victims of human rights violation.
  • SARC (Sexual Assault Referral Services) should have additional funding for interpreting services, and staff trained and supported to work on violence against women.
  • There should be an expansion of services for trafficked women.
  • There should be more specialised services for BME women experiencing rape and sexual assault.
  • Decriminalise prostitution and criminalise users of prostitution.
  • Educate young people about trafficking (have a national campaign like drink driving, smoking).

 

 


 
   
   
   
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