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UN rapporteur accused of focusing on UK immigration policy, rather than violence against women (22 April 2014)

Date: 22/04/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, UN rapporteur accused of focusing on UK immigration policy, rather than violence against women

United Nations (UN) Inspector Rashida Manjoo has told MPs that Britain has a “boys’ club sexist culture” ? and a worse sexism culture than any other country.

The leading South African academic is on a fact-finding mission to the UK as a UN special rapporteur on violence against women. She has previously visited countries like Bangladesh, Algeria, Somalia, Jordan, Italy and the US, gathering data on how women are treated globally.

Ms Manjoo visited London, Bristol, Cardiff, Leicester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cookstown and Belfast to gather evidence on the treatment of women in Britain and found that sexism in the UK is more widespread than in other countries ? including the UK’s “Page Three” culture and women being “scantily clad” in advertising.

Ms Manjoo is calling for compulsory lessons for schoolgirls on “bullying, harassment and sexual violence”.

She also attacked cuts to Legal Aid and welfare benefits which affect women. Some of the changes in Legal Aid affect women fighting cases in the Family Division.

Ms Manjoo said:

“What is clear from these indications of portrayals of women and girls is that there is a boys’ club sexist culture that exists ? and it does lead to perceptions about women and girls in this country. I haven’t seen that so pervasively in other counties.

“I’m sure it exists,” she added. “But it wasn‘t so much and so pervasive.”

Ms Manjoo was addressing a meeting in London last week when she made her comments. A source close to Home Secretary Theresa May said the minister was “surprised” at how little the UN rapporteur knew about violence against women, after meeting Ms Manjoo.

Conservative MPs have criticised her remarks about sexism in Britain, saying that as a result the focus could be taken away from countries where serious problems with violence against women exist.

However, Ms Manjoo has also called for fewer women to be jailed in the UK ?and has claimed that Britain’s criminal justice system is failing to prosecute violent husbands.

Her initial report on her findings on violence against women in the UK has also highlighted that cuts in funding to women’s refuges are adversely affecting women from black and ethnic minority communities in the UK, as well as women with disabilities and lesbians.

She has also criticised the Home Secretary for not allowing her access to the controversial Yarl’s Wood Immigration Centre in Bedfordshire, which has in recent months been the focus for campaigners demanding that women in detention there be released.

Ms Manjoo has claimed that the Home Secretary has “something to hide” in denying her access to Yarl‘s Wood.

However, government officials close to the Home Secretary have questioned why Ms Manjoo has targeted UK immigration policy in her fact-finding mission.

“Doesn‘t she think that violence against women is a really serious issue in its own right?” said the government source.

Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, said, however, that Ms Manjoo had exposed a government “blind spot” in women’s issues.

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