The U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, has issued her report on violence against women in the United Kingdom after completing a fact-finding mission last April. The Special Rapporteur’s findings raise concerns about the U.K.’s approach to protecting women from domestic violence as well as serious allegations of sexual and physical abuse at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre for women. The Special Rapporteur, Rashida Manjoo, also criticized the government’s austerity measures and their effect on women’s access to domestic violence services. Recommendations include the development of awareness raising campaigns, the creation of specialist services for vulnerable and marginalized women, and the establishment of taskforces to promote law and policy reform.
The Special Rapporteur’s report is available for download from the United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights website.
Compiled from: Townsend, Mark, UK under fire over ‘incoherent’ approach to domestic violence, The Guardian (June 14, 2015).