- Conference
- 2007 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 23 February 2007
- Decision
- Carried
Research at national and international level has consistently shown that domestic violence is a form of gender specific violence. The recent report into violence against women by the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) acknowledges the role of violence against women in perpetuating the subordination of women in all societies throughout the globe.
Violence against women is a violation of internationally guaranteed human rights, rights which the United Kingdom (UK) has signed up to, such as the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Beijing Platform for Action, and which are included in UK law under the Human Rights Act 1998.
However, despite the lead which the UN has shown on this issue, there is no statutory definition of violence against women or statutory definition of domestic violence in any of the legal systems which govern the UK. This gives the court system discretion as to what they can determine violence against women and domestic violence to be. Conference believes that domestic violence should be considered as forming part of the continuum of violence against women and that at the very least we should have a general definition of domestic violence.
Conference welcomes the work of Rights of Women and other women’s organisations in urging the government to enact a statutory definition of violence against women which includes domestic violence or at the very least a general definition of domestic violence.
Conference believes that the government should adopt the definition of violence against women contained within the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, under which “violence against women” means ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life’ (Article 1).
Conference instructs the National Executive Council to work with the National Women’s Committee, Labour Link and appropriate women’s organisations to jointly:
1)develop a campaigning strategy to urge the government to enact a statutory definition of violence against women or in the alternative a general definition of domestic violence;
2)develop and produce a leaflet or booklet to raise awareness of, and union-wide support for the issues, for distribution to all branches and members.