Steve
Topple van The Canary schreef een artikel waarin hij in de kop stelt
dat de Covid-19 crisis (ofwel: de Coronacrisis) vrouwen doodt, maar bepaald niet alleen door het virus. Een actiegroep roept de Britse regering dan ook middels een petitie op om maatregelen te nemen tegen huiselijk geweld, zeker daar veel slachtoffers nu gedwongen thuiszitten…..
Door het
gedwongen thuiszitten worden vrouwen die al het slachtoffer waren van
huiselijk geweld, nog meer overgeleverd aan de psychopaat die hen
mishandelt (Topple spreekt er niet over, maar hetzelfde geldt
uiteraard voor incest slachtoffers/slachtoffertjes). Het aantal
vrouwen dat wordt mishandeld is in bepaalde Chinese gebieden sinds de
aanvang van de crisis verdriedubbeld….. In Groot-Brittannië wordt
één derde van de vrouwen tijdens hun leven het slachtoffer van
huiselijk geweld en in 2019 werden 1,6 miljoen (!!!) Britse vrouwen getroffen door dat geweld……
In GB
heeft men de laatste jaren fiks bezuinigd op het aanpakken van
huiselijk geweld, hoewel daar gezien het aantal slachtoffers en het
geweld dat hen werd aangedaan, totaal geen reden toe was….. Het zal
je dan ook niet verbazen dat het aantal meldingen van huiselijk geweld dat tot vervolging
leidt, maar één derde bedraagt van het totaal aantal aangiften gedaan bij de politie, de
rest wordt afgewezen, wat de slachtoffers niet zelden in een zeer
gevaarlijke situatie brengt….. Het aantal vrouwen dat in GB wordt
vermoord door de partners is gestegen van één tot drie vrouwen per
week…. (!!!), daarbovenop nemen elke week drie vrouwen zich het
leven daar zij in een uitzichtloze gewelddadige thuissituatie zitten,
anders gezegd zij suïcideren zich om aan het geweld te ontsnappen
…..
Je kan
er donder op zeggen dat wat voor China en GB geldt, ook aan de hand
is in ons land en ook hier wordt te weinig opgetreden tegen huiselijk
geweld…. (overigens, er bestaat ook huiselijk geweld tegen mannen
en ook dat huiselijk geweld zal zijn toegenomen, doordat men nu
noodgedwongen veel meer tijd door moet brengen met de gewelddadige
partner….)
The
Covid-19 crisis is killing women. But it’s not the virus doing it.
Steve
Topple
23rd March 2020
Content warning: contains
discussion of domestic violence
A campaign group is calling on the
government to act quickly in the face of coronavirus (Covid-19). But
it’s not asking for it to put more measures in place to slow the
pandemic. The group is urging the government to act over a “hidden
crisis” that’s “killing women in their masses”. It’s not
coronavirus. It’s domestic violence.
Coronavirus:
the hidden impact?
Many countries around the world
have put social distancing and isolation measures in place. This is
because of the coronavirus pandemic. China was one of the first
countries to do this. It reportedly
put 760 million people in isolation, confining them to their homes.
The Italian government called
in the army to enforce its citizens’ isolation. France
and Spain
are both on lockdown. But a side effect of this has been an upsurge
in women reporting domestic violence.
The campaign group Women’s
Lives Matter Yorkshire (WLMY) has been active for several years. It has
been campaigning over cuts and changes to domestic violence services.
But now, it’s growing increasingly concerned about the implications
of coronavirus.
A
global crisis
Amy Cousens and Louise Harrison
from Women’s Lives Matter told The
Canary:
There is a hidden crisis
across the globe that is killing women in their masses. It’s not
coronavirus, it’s domestic violence.
As we entered 2020 the
number of women murdered every week by a partner or ex-partner in the
UK rose to 3. We know that on top of this 3 women a week kill
themselves to escape abuse. For women needing to self isolate who are
going through domestic violence, it’s a double whammy. Domestic
violence perpetrators use many tactics to control and isolate victims
from support mechanisms. And now, around the globe, coronavirus is
being used as another tool.
The reported figures from various
countries show an increase in domestic violence. For example:
-
In
some parts of China the number
of domestic violence cases has been three times higher since the
pandemic started. -
A
support service in Oregon, US has seen
the number of calls it received double. - Support services in Australia
are worried, as the 2019/20 fires had already caused
a surge in domestic violence cases.
In the US, as NBC
reported,
concerns are growing. It heard from the chief executive of one
domestic violence charity who said:
she heard from survivors
of abusers who threatened to kick them out of the house, who made
them wash their hands until they were “raw and bleeding” and
abusers who made them stay home from work.
But Women’s Lives Matter
Yorkshire is also really concerned about the situation in the UK.
The
UK situation
Cousens and Harrison told The
Canary:
As coronavirus forces us
indoors in the UK, women and all victims of domestic violence are at
risk.
This is on top of a
funding crisis within our domestic violence services and refuges. In
January of this year it was released that two-thirds of referrals to
domestic violence refuges are rejected. They are over run and over
stretched with a lack of secure funding. We do not have enough beds
as it is. If the government does not act on the demands in our
petition then we know that more women’s lives will be lost. It was
once said that a society can be judged by… [the] way it treats
women, will our government ensure our lives matter?
As the charity Refuge reported,
in the UK:
-
Almost
one in three women will experience domestic violence in their
lifetime. - 1.6 million women experienced
domestic abuse in the year ending March 2019.
Given the global reports, it is
likely the increase in domestic violence due to coronavirus will be
seen in the UK. But so far, the government has done nothing to
support domestic violence victims and survivors during the pandemic.
So, Women’s Lives Matter
Yorkshire is urging it to act.
Sweeping
measures needed
It has launched a petition.
It’s calling on the government to put in place emergency measures
to protect victims of domestic abuse. The group is calling for:
-
“Use
empty hotel rooms, B&Bs and re-appropriate empty properties to
safely house victims needing to flee abusive situations”. -
“Put
measures in place to assist victims to safely leave the home and get
to secure accommodation”. -
“Immediately
give substantial funding to current domestic violence refuges”.
The group also wants the “refuges that have been cut under
austerity” to be replaced, and the government to fund more new
refuges. -
“Emergency
funds for those fleeing violence to support them with immediate
provisions such as transport, food, etc”. -
“Treat
domestic violence specialists as key workers”. - “Seek to reach out to
specialist workers who have lost their jobs due to domestic violence
service closures and re-deploy their skills to new services”.
But will the UK government act?
Safeguarding
business before women?
Cousens and Harrison summed up the
situation:
The government has shown
in its measures to safeguard business that there is money available.
We need this money to properly fund refuges.
Over recent years, domestic
violence victims and survivors have seen support eroded thanks to
austerity. With successive governments cutting
millions of pounds from domestic violence services, there is now a
perfect storm brewing for countless women. The government needs to
act, and quickly. Ideally before there are more deaths caused by
coronavirus; ones that aren’t directly due to Covid-19 itself.
Featured image via Grand
Forks Air Force Base / pixabay
– mattthewafflecat
=======================================
Zie ook:
‘Coronavirus: in tijden van crisis moet het kabinet totale openheid geven‘ (en zie de links in dat bericht, anders dan de hier getoonde)
‘Grote bendes met apen vechten voor voedsel op de straten van Thailand‘
‘Coronavirus advies voor ouderen van ANBO directeur den Haan‘
‘Coronavirus: VS roept alle burgers op terug te keren naar huis‘ (was dat maar waar: alle VS burgers, inclusief de militairen…)
‘Coronavirus: alles wijst erop dat dit virus uit een militair laboratorium van de VS komt‘
