RCEW has come together with over 100 other women’s rights organisations to call on the government to stop the weaponisation of violence against women and girls by far-right groups and politicians to promote racist, anti-migrant agendas.
These attempts to link sexual violence with particular groups of people or immigration are more than unfounded misinformation – as well as fuelling division and racist narratives, these tactics are also putting survivors at risk. At a time when the government has pledged to halve VAWG within a decade, the hijacking of critical conversations around gender-based violence is creating a distraction that prevents us from addressing the issue.
We’re urging the government to take immediate action on this weaponisation of VAWG by addressing the way it portrays migration, and hold to account those who spread misinformation, so we can instead focus on building a coherent, meaningful strategy that protects women and girls from sexual violence and abuse.
Read the full letter below:
In the last weeks, we have seen how vital conversations about violence against women and girls (VAWG) are being hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda that fuels division, harms survivors and ultimately impedes the real work of tackling the root causes of society-wide violence, to the detriment of women and girls. We write as organisations on the frontlines of combating VAWG to urge the Government to address this dangerous narrative.
We condemn all acts of violence against women and girls and the immense harm which such acts cause to individuals and communities. The facts about violence against women and girls in the UK are stark:
- Almost one in three women will experience domestic abuse, and sexual offences are at the highest level recorded.
- One woman every four days in the UK is murdered by a partner or ex-partner.
- More than 90% of perpetrators of rape and sexual assault are known to their victims.
- One in two rapes against women are carried out by a partner or ex-partner.
- One in three adult survivors of rape experiences it in their own home.
- Women who can’t access public funds, such as welfare support or housing assistance – due to No Recourse to Public Funds conditions – are three times more likely to experience VAWG.
We have been alarmed in recent weeks by an increase in unfounded claims made by people in power, and repeated in the media, that hold particular groups as primarily responsible for sexual violence. This not only undermines genuine concerns about women’s safety but also reinforces the damaging myth that the greatest risk of gender-based violence comes from strangers.
Every act of VAWG is a form of injustice. It is an injustice that violence against women and girls is carried out in our workplaces, in our schools, in our streets and most commonly, in our homes. It is an uncomfortable reality that it is committed in every economic group, ethnicity, age and social group, and overwhelmingly by the men who are in women and girls’ lives. VAWG is also perpetrated by people who move to the UK, but the racist idea that this is solely an imported problem flies in the face of women and girls’ daily experiences in the UK.
These horrifying facts must be addressed with sustainable investment in prevention and support services, and by removing state-imposed barriers to support for survivors. Instead, the issue is being hijacked by people seeking to use women and girls’ pain and trauma – and the threat of it – for political gain.
Over recent weeks, people claiming to care about the “safety of women and children” have left families, women and children living in temporary asylum accommodation afraid to leave their front door. They follow in the footsteps of the rioters who used the appalling murder of three young girls as an excuse to bring violence to our streets; with targeted attacks against migrant, minoritised and Muslim communities. That two out of five of those arrested for that disorder themselves had police histories of domestic abuse illustrates not only the pervasiveness of gender-based violence but the disingenuous nature of many of those who claim to have the interests of women and children at heart. Meanwhile, members of Parliament freely share false statistics about the nationality of perpetrators. Government ministers have even endorsed some of this summer’s demonstrators as having ‘legitimate’ concerns, which risks normalising and enabling the spreading of racist narratives by the far-right.
Not only do these falsehoods fail to keep women safe, they serve as a racist distraction that actively impedes the urgent work of addressing gender-based violence. Myths and misconceptions about sexual violence act as a barrier to justice for survivors. Spreading an inaccurate picture of VAWG in the UK allows the people – overwhelmingly men, from all walks of life – who harm women and girls to hide behind racial stereotypes and scapegoating. Meanwhile, hostile immigration policies propped up by this misinformation put many of the most marginalised women and survivors in the UK – racialised, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking women – at even greater risk of harm, destitution, homelessness, exploitation and criminalisation.
The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls. This is a challenging but achievable ambition, but it cannot be done while lies about its causes are endorsed by those in the highest positions of power – Parliament and the media – and allowed to spread unchecked.
We urge the Government to show leadership in responding to the weaponisation of VAWG, including changing its framing of migration, promoting an accurate picture of violence against women and girls, and holding those who spread misinformation to account. We cannot afford for this agenda to drive further attacks on migrant communities or harm efforts to develop a coherent, effective strategy to address the real causes of gender-based violence. All women and girls deserve for us to face and confront the reality of VAWG, so that we can pave the way in ending it.
The letter was co-ordinated by the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Women for Refugee Women, Hibiscus and Southall Black Sisters, and supported by expert organisations including Rape Crisis England & Wales, Imkaan, Latin American Women’s Rights Service, Refuge and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.