Our ‘Break the Silence’ campaign is working to raise awareness of domestic violence.
We work with cultural and religious groups where women can feel ashamed or disloyal when reporting abuse. This is because crimes like these are not openly discussed or discouraged in these settings. Many women believe their religion or culture requires them to suffer in silence and this contributes to the devastating statistics that we see today. For too long, cultural and religion settings have contributed to the suffering of abused women through their silence and judgements; our ‘Break the Silence’ campaign seeks to bring the issues to light and give voices to the victims. Nobody should have to suffer because of the culture they have been born into or their religious beliefs.
Our ‘Break the Silence’ campaign video highlights the impact of domestic violence through the story of a survivor who was brave enough to share her story.
In 2017, we began partnering with the UK Parliament to raise awareness on how people could get involved with parliament to help shape legislation around domestic violence. The Prime Minister has announced ‘a major programme of work leading towards bringing forward a Domestic Violence and Abuse Act’ which will:
- Establish a Domestic Abuse Commissioner
- Define domestic abuse and bring in consolidated protection orders
- Allow aggravated sentences where abusive behaviour involves a child
On the 21st of January 2019, the government published the draft Domestic Abuse Bill which sets out the government’s plan to support victims and protect them from the offenders. It is the first ever government definition of domestic abuse to include non-physical forms of abuse such as economic or manipulative abuse.
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on domestic violence is chaired by Jess Phillips MP and provides a forum for discussion on how policy and legislation relating to domestic violence is affecting survivors and specialist support services. The APPG meetings are open to the public to attend, you can email appg@womensaid.org.uk to join their mailing list.
