Day-Mer Women’s Commission shared a statement following the vigil held for Sarah Everard on Saturday 13 March.
Members of the commission attending the vigil held for Sarah, whose body was found following her disappearance. A police office Wayne Couzens, 48 has been charge with her murder an kidnap, a un-named female has also been released on bail set to return to a police station on a date in mid-April.
Day-Mer Women’s Commission called for the government to take action and do more to protect women saying: “…After the incident occurred, many women on social media shared the sexual harassment they experienced, that they were walking uneasily in the dark, feeling unsafe and harassment, and that nothing was done in reporting these harassments to the police.
While 97% of young women in the UK have experienced sexual harassment in public spaces according to official figures,
While one in two women was sexually harassed at work, 80% of women of all age groups were harassed in public, less than 4% of women who reported rape had their files reaching the court, and 3 women were killed every week as a result of domestic violence. You cannot say that his murder was the exception. This murder, committed by a police officer responsible for the safety of people, is a summary of the police and state’s perspective on violence against women, police officials’ statements to women not alone at night. Instead of calling for women to stay at home, officials should take urgent measures and implement them immediately to ensure that women feel safe and be in the streets and in all areas of life.
That’s why our urgent demands are:
– the government takes immediate action to end sexist, racist and all kinds of discriminatory practices in institutional areas
– Determination and mandatory implementation of employers’ new responsibilities to prevent sexual harassment in workplaces and ratification and implementation of ILO Law 190.
– Implementing the law on domestic violence, including migrant women, and identifying methods by which women can report securely, including women who are not currently in residence.
– Providing compulsory trainings for public sector workers on the prevention of violence against women and how it should be approached.
– Long-term services and allocation of necessary funds in this area in order to provide all kinds of support for women who are subjected to violence.
– Organizing and implementing a fight plan, in which necessary official institutions jointly participate, against the institutional discrimination and inequality faced by women, black society, LGBT and disabled people in work, health, education, housing and justice….”
