UN official urged UK to end violence against women, girls ‘a national threat’

Anjali Sharma

GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 22nd Feb. UN Special Rapporteur and the human rights expert Reem Alsalem on Wednesday said that the Great Britain must take action to end all forms of violence against women and girls, have labeled it a “national threat”.

Reem Alsalem concluded her 10-day visit to the country, noted that a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK, and one in four women there will experience some form of domestic violence in her lifetime.

“Entrenched patriarchy at almost every level of society, combined with a rise in misogyny that permeates the physical and online world, is denying thousands of women and girls across the UK the right to live in safety, free from fear and violence,” she said in a statement summarized her preliminary findings and observations.

Ms. Alsalem acknowledged the robust legal framework for promoting gender equality, including the Equality Act 2010 and other legislation that applies across the UK.

She noted that this framework is complemented by important legislation and policies in the devolved regions, referring to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

She said the UK has been a leader in strengthening its legal framework to address current and emerging forms of violence against women and girls, including coercive control, digitally facilitated violence and stalking, as well as improving access to justice.

“Many countries will look to the UK for inspiration, as well as examples of innovation and good practice on how to make life safer for women and girls, and accountability for crimes committed against them,” she added.

She noted that a number of realities undermine the UK’s ability to realize the full potential of its legislation and policies on violence against women.

They include the dilution of the link between these policies and the UK’s international human rights obligations; a general critical discourse and positioning on human rights in relation to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees; and the fragmentation of policies on male violence against women and girls across devolved and non-devolved areas.

“The UK can do more to translate its political recognition of the scale of violence against women and girls into action,” she said.

She offered many recommendations, such as bringing together all legislative and programmatic strands of intervention on the issue, upgrading and formalizing responsibility for discrimination and violence against women and girls in government, and anchoring it in human rights commitments.

Ms. Alsalem expressed concern about how grassroots organizations and specialized frontline service providers working with women and girls are struggling to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, both foreign and national, who fall through the cracks and are not covered by statutory service providers.

She said these groups “are struggling to survive in an increasingly challenging context of rising living costs, a deepening housing crisis and a critical lack of funding,”.

“The situation of NGOs working on gender equality and violence against women and girls has reached a crisis point and is simply untenable,” she added.

She urged the UK authorities to restore predictable and adequate funding to frontline organizations.