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Beach clean
The Million Mile Clean – Beach Cleans

The Million Mile Clean – Beach Cleans

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100,000 VOLUNTEERS X 10 MILES EACH = 1 MILLION MILES    https://beachcleans.org.uk/about Fresh air, community spirit, a sense of accomplishment and a tangible difference to your local beach. Protecting the environment has never been so rewarding. Surfers Against Sewage are excited to bring you the Million Mile Clean.  This is a new campaign which connects our beach cleaning action throughout the year targeting 100,000 volunteers walking 10 miles, whilst cleaning the places they love. After more than a year of isolation, social distancing and reduced physical activity, the Million Mile Clean reconnects communities with the environment.  Also promotes the benefits of volunteering for both mental health and physical wellbeing. Join us for the biggest, most active beach clean campaign ever! HOW DO I GET INVOLVED? We want you to walk, paddle or swim 10 miles throughout the year whilst picking up rubbish. Beach, street, river

Join in the WI Walk with Women for no more Violence

Join in the WI Walk with Women for no more Violence

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On Friday 19 March 2021, the NFWI is calling on all WI members to show their support and solidarity with all women who have experienced abuse and harassment. Between 6pm-7pm, we would like WI members to safely join our ‘WI Walk with Women’, in accordance with social-distancing rules. Together with members of your household, in your support bubble or with a fellow WI member within your local area, we are asking WI members to join us by walking down your street; using candles, lanterns or your phone’s flashlight, to show your support. Soroptimists, we urge you to join in. Please note, the following actions must be taken in accordance with Government guidelines on social distancing, and within Covid-19 restrictions. Join our ‘WI Walk with Women’, and between 6pm-7pm walk down your street with candles, flashlights, lanterns etc. You can ask members of your household and

PArliament
Domestic Abuse Bill – what can you do to lobby?

Domestic Abuse Bill – what can you do to lobby?

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Letter re Domestic Abuse Bill Dear All Firstly, congratulations on the work of all Soroptimists in the UK who lobbied for a change in the law re non-fatal strangulation in domestic abuse. It is now confirmed that there will be a clause in the new Domestic Abuse Bill to change the law – you have been successful! Dame Vera Baird helped with this amendment as she is asking again for our assistance. The final reading of the bill is scheduled for March 8th Between 2009 and 2018, 888 women were killed with 60% being recorded as having domestic abuse as a factor. In the same period 108 men were killed by women with domestic abuse cited in 77% of cases. The defence of provocation reduces a murder charge to manslaughter but doesn’t really work for women because they often use a weapon – e.g., run

United Nations
UN Committee calls for crackdown on trafficking of women and girls in digital age 

UN Committee calls for crackdown on trafficking of women and girls in digital age 

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  GENEVA (11 November 2020) The UN women’s rights committee today called on governments to pursue all appropriate means to eliminate trafficking in women and girls, highlighting the increasing use of social media to recruit trafficking victims during the COVID-19 pandemic. In its general recommendation released today, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) found that women and girls continue to be major victims of trafficking across the world, despite the existing anti-trafficking legal and policy frameworks at national and international levels. The Committee emphasised that the realities of trafficking in women and girls now extend well beyond the offline world, pointing to recent trends of trafficking in cyberspace. The development of social media and chat apps to gain easy access to potential victims when traffickers cannot use more traditional ways to recruit women and girls for sexual exploitation during COVID-19 lockdowns was alarming,

CSW65
What is the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 65?

What is the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 65?

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The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 65 is scheduled to take place 15-26 March 2021 in New York. For the first time this will be a virtual event. The sixty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place from 15 to 26 March 2021. In light of the evolving COVID-19 situation, and taking into account the latest guidance from the United Nations Secretary-General and the World Health Organization (WHO), CSW65 will take place in a hybrid format with mostly virtual meetings.  Representatives of Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world are invited to attend the session. Please be reminded that if you want to register for CSW 65 (and receive updates) then you need to do so by the Indico website by 22 February 2021. Main theme: ‘Women’s full and effective participation and decision-making in public

PArliament
House of Lords vote for anti-genocide amendments

House of Lords vote for anti-genocide amendments

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February 3rd, 2021 On Tuesday evening, peers voted in favour of two amendments to the Trade Bill to strengthen the UK’s approach to preventing genocide, defeating the Government. Humanists UK, which briefed All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG) peers in support of these amendments ahead of these votes, has welcomed their inclusion in the Bill.  The Trade Bill will now be returned to the House of Commons to be considered by MPs. The first of these amendments will require Government ministers to determine whether another signatory to a new trade agreement has committed crimes against humanity before the agreement can be laid before Parliament for ratification. Then publish that determination at the same time as requesting Parliament to ratify the agreement. The second amendment will allow the High Court or Court of Session in Scotland to make a preliminary determination that another signatory to a bilateral trade