Council of Europe Report on UK and VAWG

Violence remains endemic in the UK yet we are not outraged

In 2022 , the UK joined the European Convention on preventing and combatting violence against women, which is a legally binding agreement ratified by 39 states. Last month the Group of European Experts charged with analysing how well each country is performing published their 130 page report on the UK. https://www.coe.int/en/web/istanbul-convention/-/violence-against-women-in-the-uk-many-promising-initiatives-but-protection-is-patchy-and-crucial-services-are-under-resourced-say-council-of-europe-experts One of their conclusions is that Violence against Women and Girls remains endemic in the UK. One in four women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime. Police recorded sexual offences are at an all time high . (paragraph 108)

There are 11 pages of recommendations , which include “ensuring adequate funding for the sector” “massively increasing the use of emergency banning orders” and notes that the UK is not meeting the recommended provision of safe accommodation of one family place per 100,000 population.

Prevention

I was most interested in what they had to report about Prevention. This is the work I have been engaged with for 20 years. They noted with satisfaction the fact that some awareness raising campaigns address the perpetrators and put the emphasis on shifting responsibility to men’s behaviour change. They commend the welsh campaign “Sound” aimed at Men and Boys. I’ve just checked looked at it. There are 1000 followers on Instagram, and 2,300 on TikTok, while the Youtube channel has had 51 good videos posted, 1200 views and 24 likes! That is not the mass engagement we need if we are to change an entrenched misogynistic culture, when the Manosphere Podcast has 157,000 subscribers and 25 million views.

Shadow Report: Engaging Men and Boys

18 months ago in December 2023, the UK VAWG sector published a Shadow Report on the Implementation of the Council of Europe Convention, supported by 58 specialist VAWG organisations across England and Wales, and said “Despite some positive progress, the government has not made adequate funding available for primary prevention approaches engaging men and boys to transform cultures to prevent violence happening in the first place, and recommended “Funding and Delivery of multiyear, long term effective public communication campaigns and responses that challenge harmful social norms and perpetrator and bystander behaviour”

Who is out there for Unity, Equality and Respect

I count 8 organisations targetting men and boys to engage , discuss and challenge behaviour . Some of them are completely voluntary,like the one I still speak for, Male Allies Challenging Sexism, while the largest has 6 or 7 staff. We need a much larger response to engage with men and boys on a national scale if we are to achieve what the law requires, and what we want, a society of unity, equality and respect.