Domestic abuse news roundup: w/c 6th March 2023

🗣️ Over 100,000 people tell government to do more protect women and girls

A petition to end online abuse has surpassed 100,000 signatures. In a statement the campaigners said:

“In its current form the #onlinesafetybill doesn’t go far enough to protect women and girls from abuse online: rape threats, revenge porn, harassment, stalking, doxxing, domestic abuse perpetrated online and much more. It won’t tackle the tide of misogynistic content that is influencing young people’s attitudes to sex, relationships and equality. Content that tech platforms profit from, young people are harmed by and schools and colleges are left to deal with. A violence against women and girls code of practice would hold tech companies accountable for preventing this abuse and change the whole system, so that our rights to be free from violence are upheld online.”

👰 Minimum marriage age rises to 18 in England and Wales

A new law has come into effect raising the legal age marriage to 18 in England and Wales. Before this change, forced marriage was only illegal if coercion i.e. threats were used. Under the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act it will be illegal to arrange marriages for children under any circumstances, whether or not coercion is used. Anyone found guilty of this offence could be sentenced to 7 years in prison.

Campaigner Payzee Mahmod’s sister Banaz was killed in a an honour killing after leaving the husband she was forced to marry at 17. She says this new law is “one of the most important days of my life, I know in great detail the harms of child marriage.” Charity Karma Nirvana (who support victims of forced marriages) said this “new law will help increase identification and reporting of child marriage and provide greater protection to those at risk.”

👮‍♂️ Hundreds of sex offenders went missing, figures show

729 sex offenders went missing or were wanted for arrest from 2019-2021; according to a freedom of information request from the BBC to 45 police forces across the country. A key reason offenders go missing is due to them changing their name so abuse survivors are campaigning for the government to introduce a new law called Della’s law to ban sex offenders from changing their name.

A criticism of the current law is that it’s easy to bypass as it’s the offender’s responsibility to notify police of name changes. Under the current law, if added to the sex offenders register, offenders have to visit police annually to inform them of any changes to personal details. If they don’t comply they face up to 5 years in prison.

TAKE ACTION:

🗣️ Call on the House of Lords to introduce a violence against women and girls code of practice in the #onlinesafetybill by clicking on this link.

Your weekly domestic abuse news round up was curated by SATEDA’s volunteer Ellie Arnott 

Sources: End Violence Against Women Coalition, Glitch UK, BBC News