{"id":4615,"date":"2020-09-30T18:05:14","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T16:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/newcastle-upon-tyne\/?page_id=4615"},"modified":"2021-04-21T21:06:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T19:06:22","slug":"raising-awareness-of-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/newcastle-upon-tyne\/raising-awareness-of-domestic-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s safety and security"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coming soon,<\/strong>\u00a0ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER BASED VIOLENCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender based Violence takes place between 25 November and 10 December each year. The theme for 2020 is \u201cOrange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!\u201d<\/p>\n

As the world retreated inside homes due to the lockdown measures introduced to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, reports showed an alarming increase in the already\u00a0existing pandemic of violence against women<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAccompanying the crisis has been a spike in domestic violence reporting, at exactly the time that services, including rule of law, health and shelters, are being diverted to address the pandemic,\u201d stated the UN Secretary-General\u2019s report, \u201cShared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19<\/a>\u201c.<\/p>\n

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In the lead up to the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, we are pleased to share the following videos :<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=llNP__bW-o0&feature=emb_title-<\/a>\u00a0The Shadow Pandemic narrated by Kate Winslet \u2013 1 minute long<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uddNvBu0MV8&feature=emb_logo<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 Statement by Nicole Kidman on Shadow Pandemic \u2013 2.5 minutes long<\/p>\n

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\u201cSpecialist Domestic Violence Courts \u2013 how special are they?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A much-loved session of the annual SIGBI Conferences really does showcase the Best of the Best. There were six winners, each representing a different category and we won the Advocacy one. All winners gave a presentation of their winning Project, and received their Certificates from Programme Director Kay Richmond.
\nAdvocacy
\nSI Newcastle-upon-Tyne for their survey \u201cSpecialist Domestic Violence Courts \u2013 how special are they?<\/strong><\/p>\n

How many women suffer unfair treatment in the Special Domestic Violence courts? We ask the question, \u2019How special are they?\u201d How long can we continue to allow unfairness? Dame Vera Baird, along with the Soroptimist Clubs in Northern England instigated action to change this by observing procedures and behaviours in the law courts. This was undertaken by volunteer court observers, mainly from the North of England Soroptimists and trained by CPS and the Courts Service, observed 223 cases over a 5 month period. They found a significant number of gaps in the system but that if both funding and training were improved SDVCs would work as was originally intended
\nThe findings included in 12 out of 21 not guilty pleas, defendants changed their plea to guilty on the trial date, as soon as the victim entered the court building. One judge commented about defendants \u2018gaming the system.\u2019
\nSpecialist Domestic Violence Courts should do more to stop defendants \u2018gaming the system\u2019, improve the courts understanding of coercive control and provide Independent Domestic Abuse Advocates at every stage to help complainants and victims.
\nAction is being undertaken to transfer this knowledge and understanding of this issue in the endeavour to change the judicial system, educate, empower, enable women in our equality generation and work towards achieving Soroptimist Goals and the 2030 Agenda, \u201cLeaving no one behind\u201d.<\/p>\n

Read the final report produced by SI Newcastle upon Tyne. OPCC_037_Specialist-domestic-violence-courts-Court-Observers-Panel-A4-booklet-2018-V2[209555]<\/p>\n

https:\/\/sigbi.org\/newcastle-upon-tyne\/files\/2020\/04\/OPCC_037_Specialist-domestic-violence-courts-Court-Observers-Panel-A4-booklet-2018-V2209555.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

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For more information please visit Soroptimist int Newcastle upon Tyne_YouTube where there are two videos about the role of the court observers and some findings from the observational study.<\/p>\n

Specialist Domestic Violence Courts<\/a><\/p>\n

Specialist Domestic Violence Courts – Feedback from observers.<\/a><\/p>\n

Update on Domestic Violence Champions. <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 2019 -2020 Programme Action report, we mentioned that club members were very impressed and inspired by two young Domestic Violence Champions who had attended one of our meetings.\u00a0 \u00a0We gave their organisation \u00a31000 to provide them with ‘hoodies’ to promote their work. We are going to receive a further update at a future Zoom meeting, but meanwhile they have sent us photographs of their new hoodies which carry the Soroptimist logo.<\/p>\n

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