SADIQ KHAN: WOMEN’S GROUPS WELCOME NEW MAYOR
End Violence Against Women Coalition & Imkaan FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 7 MAY 2016
SADIQ KHAN: WOMEN’S GROUPS WELCOME NEW MAYOR
“Feminist” Sadiq Khan pledged to tackle violence against women & girls during campaign
Women’s groups working to end violence against women and girls across London have today (6 May) congratulated and welcomed Sadiq Khan MP as the city’s new Mayor and are looking forward to working with him over the next four years.
During his campaign Sadiq Khan corresponded with the End Violence Against Women Coalition and Imkaan - whose members work to end domestic violence, rape, stalking, forced marriage, FGM, trafficking and child sexual abuse and exploitation – and pledged:
to make London’s work in this area “stronger and better”;
to continue funding Rape Crisis centres;
to look at support for BME women and girls at risk of abuse;
and to ensure housing policy addresses the urgent needs of women and children fleeing abuse.
London MP Stella Creasy also spoke on Sadiq’s behalf at a packed ‘violence against women and girls hustings’ in April and pledged that if elected, Sadiq would address ‘everyday’ sexual harassment in public places in the capital, and would try to ensure work to prevent abuse in the long term reaches into London schools.
London already has a ground-breaking Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, introduced in 2010, which ensures that the Metropolitan Police is effectively scrutinised for its work policing these crimes, that funding for sexual violence support services doesn’t ‘fall through the cracks’, and that specific focus on issues such as FGM (female genital mutilation) and forced marriage, which brings different agencies together across the city, is possible. Women’s organisations are delighted that the new Mayor is committed to continuing this joined up approach.
Marai Larasi, Executive Director of Imkaan, a network of BME women’s groups working to stop abuse of women and girls, said:
“We love that Sadiq said he was a feminist during his campaign! We look forward to working with him on the firm basis that eradicating violence against women and girls in all its forms is a key part of ensuring women and girls have equality in our city.
“We hope to talk with Sadiq very soon about specifics – we must ensure that his radical new action on housing directly addresses the needs of women and their families at risk of violence, a major cause of women’s homelessness. We need to talk about girls and young women across London boroughs who face sexual bullying and assaults at school and in the community with no respite. And we need to look at London’s network of specialist BME women’s support services, which are facing a crisis due to cuts and competition, and without which London’s communities as a whole will suffer.”
Sarah Green, Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition said:
“Sadiq spoke passionately during his campaign about his daughters and of wanting to help create a city where all women and girls can make their own choices without limits on their freedom. This is a great vision of London as one of the best places to grow up female and be free.
“We are delighted that Sadiq is committed to maintaining and building on London’s violence against women and girls strategy, setting an example of progressive joined up city-wide working on these complex issues, which others can follow. We look forward to continuing to work with him and his new Deputy Mayor at City Hall, and to building an ever better London for women and girls by 2020.”
Women’s organisations who work to end violence against women and girls across London have to date advised the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime at City Hall on how best to achieve the goals set out in the city’s violence against women and girls strategy. The current strategy ends in 2017 and women’s groups look forward to contributing to the development of the next one.
ENDS
Media information, interviews, briefings:
Sarah Green: 07984 717 817, [email protected]
@EVAWuk
@Imkaan
www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk
www.imkaan.org.uk
The End Violence Against Women Coalition is the UK’s largest coalition of organisations working to eradicate violence against women and girls; members include Fawcett Society, Forward, Imkaan, Jewish Women’s Aid, London Black Women’s Project, Rape Crisis England and Wales, Refuge, Respect, Southall Black Sisters, Standing Together, Women in Prison, Women’s Aid, WRC, The Women’s Institute and the TUC. The EVAW Coalition is a registered charity number 1161132
Imkaan is a London based Black and ‘minority ethnic’ women’s membership organisation working nationally to address violence against BME women and girls. Imkaan members include Ashiana Network, Asha Projects, Apna Haq, Amadudu, Imece, Jewish Women’s Aid, Kurdish and Middle Eastern Women’s Organisation and London Black Women’s Project Imkaan is a registered charity number 1105976.