Burnham questions WAG commitment to violence strategy (Eleanor Burnham )

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Eleanor Burnham <info@eburnham.org.uk>

Burnham questions WAG commitment to violence strategy

October 15, 2009 9:00 AM

Eleanor Burnham, Assembly Member for North Wales has queried the Labour-Plaid government's commitment to a strategy aimed at tackling violence against women after a Motion calling for the development of a more co-ordinated and integrated approach was voted down by them in the Senedd.

Eleanor, Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Equalities, said: "The current draft strategy is very heavily focused on domestic violence and fails to fully appreciate the prevalence of sexual assault, trafficking, honour crimes and female genital mutilation in our communities.

"Women who work with others whose lives are, and have been, at risk of violence are telling us that the Government's current strategy is inadequate.

"They are saying that a more co-ordinated approach is required to effectively tackle violence against women: one that works across and through all the different strands of government and which takes all the many forms of violence against women into account.

"In Wales, one in four women will experience violence at the hands of a partner during their lives, and 150,000 women will suffer some form of gender-based violence each year. Many more instances will go unreported.

"There is only one Rape Crisis Centre in the whole of Wales - in Caernarfon - and there is only one service for women who have been through trafficking and sexual exploitation.

"As the recent "Map of Gaps" exercise by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission with End Violence Against Women showed, one in four local authority areas in Wales provides no specialised support services in that area for women who experience violence.

"Everyone except the Labour-Plaid government is saying that it is time to end the postcode lottery and produce a strategy that is fit for purpose, but yet again the government is content to steam-roller through its own plans. There is no guarantee that the points raised yesterday will be included in the government's new strategy document.

"Women in Wales whose lives are at risk surely deserve better".