Today (23rd October), the Women and Equalities Committee published its report on the sexual harassment of women and girls in public places.
The MPs making up the Committee looked into the issue of street harassment for nine months, and found that sexual harassment and abuse by men is normalised in the everyday lives of girls and women.
The report sets out the UK Government pledge to eliminate sexual harassment of women and girls by 2030, however the Committee said that there was no evidence of any programme to achieve this.
Eleri Butler, CEO of Welsh Women’s Aid said:
“We are calling on all devolved and non-devolved agencies, communities and local and national Government in Wales, to implement the recommendations in this report, as they relate to Wales.
In Wales, Welsh Government’s “Don’t be a Bystander” campaign encourages raising public awareness and empowering individuals to challenge harassment and other forms of violence against women. We look forward to seeing what difference this makes as it’s rolled out nationally.
Welsh Women’s Aid also delivers training for agencies on the tangible steps they can take to eliminate sexual harassment and abuse of women and girls and to improve access to support for survivors. We are also taking part in UK and national work to challenge and change how agencies can improve their responses and prevent it from happening in the first place.
We look forward to working with agencies and communities in Wales to implement the recommendations and ensure support is available for all who need it. This includes ensuring specialist services in Wales are adequately resourced to support survivors in every area. Specifically, we also need to challenge men’s sexual harassment and abuse, gender norms and the sexist, racist and associated inequalities that underpin all forms of violence against women and girls in Wales.”
For anybody impact by this report please contact the Live Fear Free helpline, you can:
Call them on: 0800 80 10 800
Email them on: [email protected]
Text them on: 078600 77333
Or speak to them via web chat here:
Read the summary, recommendation and full report here.