Written submission from the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations (OEU0043)

Warm greetings from the National Alliance of Women’s Organisations.  As you are aware we are an umbrella organisation with members covering a wide range of women’s organisations and individuals working for women’s human rights.   NAWO is also the secretariat of the UKNGOSCSW Alliance which is an umbrella organisation of all those NGOs working for women and girls internationally especially at the UN and at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

As an organisation whose remit is to connect women, especially to Europe, we are keen to work with HMG to ensure that the UK continues to work with its European colleagues for a Europe of equality and opportunity.  We are members of the European Women’s Lobby and will continue to work with our European civil society colleagues for this aim.  We are particularly concerned over the impact of austerity measures on women and girls.  Unfortunately many decisions are gender blind rather then gender neutral and we hope that gender impact assessments and gender budgeting will become an integral part of the work of all Government Departments as the UK leaves the EU. The 52nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, in which the UK took a strong role, focused on the issue of funding for women and girls and the outcome document, to which the UK was a signatory, has a number of elements regarding funding for women and girls to which the UK remains obliged.   This was reviewed at the 56th session and though there were no agreed conclusions on the priority theme of rural women, the UK was active in the discussions on the review theme; that of gender budgeting.

HMG needs to implement international obligations in the UK and in the UK’s area of influence. At the beginning of the 2030 Agenda when no-one should be left behind, it is vital that HMG informs the UK population on what it aims to do to ensure the critical areas of concern outlined in the Beijing Platform for Action are not forgotten and work on these is robustly resourced with gender responsive budgeting.  As the post Brexit negotiations continue, the UK must ensure it retains all of its policies and programmes relating to women and girls that ensure it’s commitments under international legal instruments are well met.

A small majority of those who voted in the referendum stated they wished to exit from a stabilising, progressive, peaceful, rights-based supra-national organisation, which the UK government is progressing.  We know you are aware and appreciate the levels of concern and anxiety amongst diverse sectors of the community as to how this may impact the rights they currently enjoy. We are

asking the Government to see this not as an opportunity to pledge to resist cutting rights but to act boldly in keeping with the Government’s humanitarian values and increase rights for all, especially women and girls.     

These include increased workers rights, especially those that disproportionately affect women: the extension of flexible working, a true living wage, increased paid non-transferrable parental leave, increased paid childcare places; Increased equality provisions, especially those that disproportionately affect women: extension of protected characteristics to include people holding public office, protection from discrimination in all spheres, a widening of the use of the social model of disability, criminalisation of hate crime (misogyny), adequate and long-term funding for specialist women's services across the UK, more use of quotas to increase women's representation at all levels of society, adequate and sustained funding for community cohesion projects. 

Women should be at the negotiating table and this is an area currently sadly deficient.  We would ask HMG to ensure that in the Brexit negotiations UK women are at the table and their rights are enshrined in any agreements.

In August we hosted, as secretariat of the UK NGO CSW Alliance, together with the European Women’s Lobby and in collaboration with Fawcett, a seminar to hear the voices of women and their concerns over Brexit.   Please find attached the report of that event to include in this submission.

November 2016