‘How Burnham can show he’s serious about ending violence against women’

Under Prime Minister Starmer this government developed a strategy on violence against women and girls, seeking to halve it. The strategy has much of value in it but a great deal remains to be done. What will PM Burnham do to progress this work, when and how? 

Burnham needs to lead by headlining elimination

The strategy acknowledges that the “right of women and girls to live free from abuse is [a] fundamental non-negotiable right”(p78). Freedom from violence requires an end to domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, sexual harassment (the most prevalent form), stalking, sexual exploitation, online abuse and so very much more. Most of us wish for our families, our children, our colleagues never to know the harms of violence. Some of us wish the same for people we may never meet.  No matter; it is a human right for women and girls to be free of violence and an obligation on the state to eliminate it. Because of its disproportionate impact on women it is seen in international law as a form of discrimination which the state is obligated to eliminate.

In doing so, public and private lives will be the better for it – political life, economic, cultural and educational engagement will benefit. 

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This is why halving VAWG was the wrong target. Which half of the “almost 200” rapes recorded by the police each day should continue and which 75 of the 150 women killed annually in England and Wales should lose their lives? Which half of those who kill in the name of honour should we not prosecute? Whichever way you slice it, half cannot be the leading metric.

Elimination is the framing the new PM should adopt.

He has already shown that he embraces high ambition by committing to ending rough sleeping before he even walked into Number 10. Impressive.

He should take the same approach to VAWG by headlining immediately and repeatedly thereafter that eliminating VAWG is his ambition; halving it can only ever be a staging point and never the core ambition. 

Burham must prioritise sexual violence and exploitation

A serious approach to elimination means properly tackling sexual abuse and exploitation, poor cousins in the broader panoply of work against violence against women and girls. It does not diminish the importance of work on domestic violence to acknowledge that sexual abuse has enjoyed less policy attention or resources. The UK (rightly) funds an International Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative yet in this country rape crisis centres are starved of funding and have been closing. Sex-for-rent continues and sexually violent pornography is in everyone’s pocket via their mobile phone.

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Some groups of women are structurally marginalised, with their lives horribly undervalued. Their experiences of violence are under-recognised and opportunities to rebuild their lives are constrained. Relevant data is limited but they suggest higher prevalence rates for some: eg reports of sexual assault are almost double for disabled women compared to other women, 5.7% vs 3%.

Immigrant women who have been subject to the ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ rule have had to choose between denial of public support – and all the privations that may bring – or remaining with abusive partners. A scheme has been introduced to mitigate this in cases of domestic abuse but its usefulness can only be assessed through greater transparency about take-up.  The UK government joined a European Convention on violence against women, yet opted out of Article 59, which offers independent residency rights to migrant women victims of domestic violence. The provision means they do not have to be fearful of losing their status, and their children, if they opt to leave abusive partners.  

Starmer did not address these issues – will Burnham? 

Centring this work at the heart of government

The new Prime Minister should signal at the very beginning of his premiership the centrality of elimination of VAWG in his agenda. But will he bring the boldness that is urgent?

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Burnham himself should chair a cross-ministerial group on VAWG to embed the understanding of the legal obligation to end violence against women, requiring all departments to be proactive on this issue. He needs to ensure meaningful sanctions for corporations (such as punitive fines rising by each hour of non-compliance on obligations around image-based pornography) as well as individuals who abuse; support for frontline services across forms of violence including sexual violence; and continuity in domestic and international work. He should expect to answer to women and girls across the world if the UK contributes directly or indirectly to increased armed conflict, which always provides the context for increased VAW.

While these actions are nowhere near a complete map of what needs to be done, they would be a strong signal from the leadership of this country that women’s lives and freedom matter.

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