Archive for February, 2009

Each year, around 1 in 10 women in Britain experience rape or other violence

27th February 2009 by agnes 94 Comments »

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Categories: violence against women

Image of the MAp of Gaps website

One in four local authorities leave female victims of violence without the specialised support they need.  Scary, isn’t it?

Find out how the flashmob went to spread this message for International Women’s Day

Make a difference – email your MP now

Image of the MAp of Gaps websiteOf course, this campaign has a concrete action.

End Violence Against Women’s new website ‘Map of Gaps’ shows exactly which services for women escaping violence are lacking where.

See what services are missing in your local area, and email your MP directly on Mapofgaps.org – it’s that easy to make a big difference.

Want to do more to help?

Violence against women affects women globally, cutting across boundaries of wealth, race, and culture.  Here are a couple of actions relating to women outside the UK.

The most common impact of conflict on women is the use of rape as a weapon of war. In fact, it is now more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier in modern conflict.

Justine BihambaJustine Masika Bihamba and her family have been attacked because of her work as coordinator of a women’s human rights organisation in the Congo. Although they can identify the soldiers, they have still not been arrested. Take action now

Women in Iran are second-class citizens in the family and before the courts – yet more than 60% of university students are women and they work in all kinds of jobs.

Member of the Iranian Campaign for EqualityMany Iranian women want to challenge this discrimination and they have asked the international community to support them in their struggle. Sign the petition to end discriminatory laws in Iran

To do even more or to take action on our other campaigns then register at ProtectTheHuman.com

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Love is a human right

13th February 2009 by sara 1 Comment »

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Categories: Love Social Media & Campaigns

Yes it’s that time of year again, you know when you’re meant to pull out all the stops and make an effort at love and romance. But, if like me you can’t bear the thought of sitting in a table for two only restaurant, with a crap overpriced set menu and stifled atmosphere then why don’t you cuddle up with your loved one and watch Amnesty’s very own Valentine’s message brought to you by some oh so cute plasticine critters.

Whether you subscribe to Valentine’s Day or not we believe love is a human right and that’s worth celebrating. So, instead of whinging about commercialism, tacky helium balloons and vomit inducing romcoms why not send a card to someone who’ll really appreciate it?

Send a message to the Chinese authorities calling for Hu Jia to be released from prison and renuited with his wife, Zeng Jinyan and their daughter. This young couple have been separated since April purely for speaking about human rights on the internet and to foreign press.

This Valentine’s make sure love wins out. Send a card for Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan.

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Snowmen for human rights

9th February 2009 by fiona 1 Comment »

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Categories: Social Media & Campaigns

Snow, snow, snow. I know it’s all anybody has talked about all week but I’d like to chip in with Amnesty UK’s own snowy adventure.

As some of you may know, we’ve been getting quite into Twitter of late (along with everyone else and his dog) and have been using our slowly growing network as guinea pigs whilst we trial the idea of offering all of our followers one small way to help, every day. The idea is simple, if we have 1000 plus followers, and each of them has between 10 and 100,000 of their own, when we post an action its potential impact is huge. This is good news for human rights.

Some of the actions we’ve been trying out have been fairly standard. You know the sort; send an email, sign the petition, and so on. Sometimes they’re more about getting the word out and just occasionally we have the chance to do something that is a bit more fun.

So back to the snow.  London ground to a halt and our office was shut. As I started to work from home, all I could think about was the ankle-deep blanket of the stuff sitting just outside my front door. What excuse could I possibly have to play in the snow whilst working? Then it dawned on me. Snowmen for human rights.

I was half-joking when I emailed the rest of the team, but a quick collective approval sent me into action. Having been following the #uksnow tag on Twitter since the previous night, I knew that was my first port of call.

The reaction to the idea was fantastic and within a few hours we were in the top three most re-tweeted posts on Twitter. A first! From there the idea snowballed (excuse the pun), messages were sent on Facebook and members of the team headed out to their local parks to see what they could rustle up.

It wasn’t until the next day, when we made it back into the office, that a few photos began to emerge. After they were uploaded to ProtectTheHuman.com, I excitedly shared them on Twitter.  The Guardian then picked up on the idea and mentioned it in their live snow blog.

This, to me, is a great example of why Amnesty and Twitter can be a great match. It gives us a space to be part of conversations we otherwise wouldn’t be, as well as the chance to engage our supporters in new ways. Whilst this action wasn’t a direct one, the effect was a growth in our network. This means that the next time we have an urgent action; the number of people taking action and sending an email will hopefully increase.

We’re already seeing the effect of this in cases such as that of Larry Ray Swearingen and Bahman Salimian. Both were due to be executed and in the final 24 hours before their execution dates we asked our network on Twitter to send an email calling for them to be halted. The reaction was fantastic and around 400 emails were sent across the two cases with both being granted a last minute stay. Whilst the emails might not have been the deciding factor, they could have been, and as the volume of emails we can send at a moments notice increases, so does the effectiveness of our campaigning.

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Map of Gaps: Showing up a lack of services for women in Britain who experience violence

2nd February 2009 by agnes 7 Comments »

Tags:
Categories: violence against women

Although charities such as Womankind, Refuge and the End Violence Against Women coalition (EVAW) have done a lot to raise awareness of violence against women, the new report ‘Map of Gaps’ by EVAW and the Equality and Human Rights Commission indicates that there is still a distinct lack of services for women who suffer violence.

In fact, over 100 (one in four) local authorities in Britain have no specialised support services whatsoever- with ethnic minority women being especially poorly served.

The Commission has announced that it will target over 100 local authorities with the threat of legal action over this lack – and you can do your bit, too.  Simply go to EVAW’s new website Map of Gaps, find out about services in your area and take action by emailing your local MP.

The presentation of this lack of services as a Map of Gaps creates quite a detailed visual image of how women suffering violence fare across Britain – although quite eerie if you live in one of the most underfunded areas, such as the east of England.

It’s great to see the internet being used to such powerful effect, as maps are so accessible, giving a quick overview of a situation – and it seems that I’m not the only one who has come to this realisation, as some of you have even been using the map format to report local snow conditions.

On that note, let’s take inspiration from this map mania and come up with a map of our own;  What do you think we could map ‘live’? All answers on a postcard … or even better, as a comment on this here blog. Let us know what you think we could map out, and remember, points mean prizes!

Find out more on the Map of Gaps report:

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