March 01, 2008

March 8: the largest women's march in UK history planned

On International Women’s Day, Saturday 8th March 2008, women will rise up in solidarity to demonstrate against all forms of violence against women, to celebrate and to honour the achievements of women in what is expected to be the largest women’s march in UK history.

The demonstration, in London, will assemble at Hyde Park at 12 noon and march to Trafalgar Square for a rally at 3.00pm.

Organisers from the Million Women Rise Coalition expect there to be a noisy, colourful rally with speakers including survivors of violence as well as celebrities who have joined forces with the Coalition to show their support.

Both Lynne Franks, seen most recently on ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here’, and Angela Davis, activist and author, are invited to speak.

The demonstration was the idea of a group of women (individuals and from the Voluntary and Community sector) who came together to form the Million Women Rise Coalition. The Coalition believes that a woman’s right to live free from violence and the fear of violence has not been achieved despite important steps taken by the government to address domestic violence in particular.

Violence devastates the lives of women, families, and communities. It also threatens to undermine efforts to bring about long lasting and peaceful development.

Co-ordinator, Sabrina Qureshi states that “Violence against women and children continues to be a global pandemic. Women and children around the world experience domestic violence, rape, sexual abuse, forced marriage, trafficking, so-called honour killings, dowry deaths, female feticide through sex-selective abortion, female infanticide and female genital mutilation. In the UK only 5% of rapes reported to the police result in a conviction. Two women a week are killed by their partner or ex-partner. Violence against women violates life, liberty, bodily integrity, freedom of movement and dignity of the person”.

The Million Women Rise Coalition is gathering support for the Statement of Demands and invites you/your organisation to consider being a signatory.
Read their 10 demands here.
No. 9. To recognise that global war and conflict perpetuates violence against women and to stop all wars now. Three out of four fatalities of war are women and children.

The reality in the UK alone -

1. One woman in four will experience sexual assault as an adult.
2. Up to 1,420 women per year are trafficked into the UK for sexual exploitation.
3. The UK Government announced that 330 child victims of trafficking had been identified over an 18-month period; of these 183 went missing from Social Services care.
4. One woman in four will experience domestic violence at some point in her life.
5. Two women are murdered every week by their partner or ex partner.
6. One incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every minute.
7. 250 cases of forced marriage are reported each year.
8. One woman a month is murdered through so called honour killing.
9. Over 20,000 girls could be at risk of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the UK.
10. The majority of women in prison are there for non-violent offences, theft, fraud and drug related crime. Over half have experienced domestic violence and one in three have experienced sexual abuse.

The reality internationally -

1. Every year, 2 million girls between the ages of 5 years and 15 years are coerced, abducted, sold or trafficked into the illegal sex market.
2. 2 million females are killed before or at birth simply because of their sex.
3. One woman dies every minute from pregnancy related causes, most of which are preventable.
4. 16.4 million women in the world are living with HIV and AIDS.
5. 55% of all HIV positive adults in sub-Saharan Africa are women.

...and this is just the tip of the iceberg..

Email: info(at)mill