- Conference
- 2025 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 11 February 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes with alarm the 2024 National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) report acknowledging that violence against women is a ‘national emergency’ in England and Wales. Although their analysis revealed that two million women a year are estimated to be victims of male violence, they admitted that this was an underestimate because many if not most offences were not reported. One of their spokespersons said that the real figure for victims was more like four million.
Unsurprisingly, this report fails to mention that police violence against women has massively dented trust in the police from victims themselves. Conference also recognises the disappointingly low conviction rates for these types of violent crimes against women.
VAWAG highlights in an extreme form the oppression of women supported and enabled by sexist and misogynist ideology. This ideology is fuelled by extreme material on the internet and misogynistic ‘influencers’.
In campaigning to protect and extend women’s sex based rights, Conference calls on the National Executive Council to:
1)Campaign to ensure the effective monitoring of the prevalence and nature of domestic violence and sexual harassment, including racialised forms of sexual harassment to which Black women are subjected;
2)Demand that employers prevent and respond to sexual harassment and victimisation at work including in the precarious job sector;
3)Campaign to reverse the effective decriminalisation of rape and ensure access to justice for all sexual and domestic violence survivors;
4)Campaign to ensure that migrant women can access the support, welfare systems and legal tools they need to escape abuse, and can report violence without fear of immigration enforcement;
5)Work with our international partners to ensure women’s sex based and reproductive rights are protected globally;
6)Campaign for fully funded support services, staffed by women, for women fleeing violence and domestic abuse;
7)Campaign for measures to prevent violence against women and girls, including resources and support for schools to address harmful sexual behaviour;
8)Campaign to eradicate the cultural, economic and social norms that are the root causes of violence against women and girls;
9)Challenge any violence against our female members in public sector workplaces. Violence at work is never acceptable;
10)Report annually on UNISON’s activities to end VAWAG.