Conference
RAPE, RACE
&
PROSTITUTION
Campaigning for justice in the 21st century
Saturday 10 March 10-5pm
Trinity Reformed Church, Buck Street, London NW1
(Kentish Town Road end, behind Sainsbury’s, Camden
Town tube)
Entrance: £20 funded organisations and professionals; £10 waged; £5 low
waged;
£3
unwaged; asylum seekers free
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Wheelchair
accessible (toilets nearby)
All Welcome
Programme
9.30
am
Registration, teas and coffee
10-12
Rape and domestic violence – Justice CAN be won
With
Black Women’s Rape Action Project and Women Against Rape
Much
has changed since the modern anti-rape movement began over 30 years ago.
Rape in marriage is now recognised as a crime. Fewer people now believe
women “ask for it”. But violent men are still getting away with it:
while the conviction rate for reported rape has gone down to 5.3%, more
women reporting rape are now being jailed. And many women seeking asylum
from rape are deported.
Women
will speak about: surviving rape and domestic violence, and then
surviving the criminal justice system; surviving rape, war and
dictatorship, and then surviving the immigration authorities; winning a
private prosecution; winning against deportation; a new and
revolutionary anti-violence law in Venezuela.
12-1
pm Lunch – Inexpensive vegetarian food available
1-2.30
pm Race and racism – Making the authorities accountable to women of
colour
With
Women of Colour in the Global Women’s Strike and Black Women’s
Rape Action Project
The Big
Brother events show that many more people want to overcome the divisions
among us. But the establishment’s attack on “multi-culturalism”
reinforces these divisions, and hides the economic and social realities
of racism. Only 7% of racist attacks result in conviction. The struggle
of women asylum seekers who face detention and deportation is part of
the anti-racist and anti-sexist movement but this is not recognised. The
cost to women of the “war on terror” and police raids on Muslim
communities has been largely hidden.
We’ll
hear from: women who must do the justice work of caring for and
defending families; the hard work of getting a conviction for a racist
attack against a Muslim woman; women defending men – Mumia Abu-Jamal on
death row.
2.30-3
pm Tea break
3-4.30
pm Prostitution – Safety first
With
the English Collective of Prostitutes and the US PROStitutes
Collective
The
tragic murders of five young women in Ipswich caused an unprecedented
outcry. All kinds of people now understand that the
criminalisation of consenting sex, whether it targets women or clients,
pushes prostitution underground, and makes women more vulnerable to
violence and exploitation. Most attacks are not reported for fear of
arrest, or when reported are often dismissed by police. When prostitute
women are not safe, no woman is safe.
The
launch of the Safety First Coalition to decriminalise sex work is based
on New Zealand’s successful experience and looks at viable economic
alternatives and appropriate health treatment.
4.30-5
pm Acting together to win justice
We are
actively working for change and we need to discuss the proposals and
suggestions that have arisen during the day.
All
Women Count Home
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