Urgent! APPG on Hate Speech/Crime Submit up to 2500 word by Weds 15th August

[SexMatters]

Hi everyone.

This one seems to be going under the wire. There is an APPG on Hate Speech/Crime but the news doesn't seem to have been spread to women and feminists, even though there is the possibility of misogyny being categorised as a hate crime www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/09/uk-police-chiefs-urged-to-adopt-harassment-of-women-as-hate

Here is the wording of this www.appghatecrime.org/inquiries/ link:
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Inquiries
The APPG on Hate Crime has launched an inquiry entitled, “How do we build community cohesion when hate crime is on the rise?”. We invite submissions of written evidence on this topic and we will be holding open sessions for further information in due course. The findings will be published in a public report at the end of the year, (2018).

What the APPG Inquiry aims to achieve

The APPG Inquiry aims to gather evidence of how hate speech and hate crime impact on communities, and to provide detailed recommendations on how community cohesion can be strengthened in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech.

The APPG explicitly focuses on all strands of hate crime and speech (race, sexual orientation, religious, disability, transgender [sex needs to be in here]*), and we are particularly keen on teasing out common themes, as well as potential divergences between the various hate crime strands.

To do this, the APPG invites submissions whilst considering the following questions:

Status Quo – What is the situation today?

What is the extent of hate crime and speech that is experienced by individuals or communities and what form does it take?
How does experiencing hate crime and hate speech impact on individuals, communities and their values?
How does online hate speech and hate crime impact on community cohesion? Is there a link?
How does hate crime and hate speech contribute to extremism, including intra-community sectarianism?
How does hate speech and bullying impact children and young people in schools and educational institutions?
How does hate speech impact on the emotional and mental-health of individuals who are targeted at a street and online level?
Recommendations – What can we do to build community cohesion?

Best practice: What schemes, initiatives and projects exist to build community cohesion in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech?
What can national and local government do to increase community cohesion in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech?
What role do police forces play in increasing community cohesion in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech? Are there practical examples of their work, say after major terrorist attacks when cohesion may be affected?
What role can community organisations, charities and others play to increase community cohesion in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech?
Are there projects that help individuals to support their emotional, mental health and practical needs when they are targeted online and offline?
How the APPG will gather evidence

The APPG is interested to hear from experts, practitioners, victims and their representative organisations, as well as academics and others with an interest in and knowledge of the topic.

Submissions should:

Be no more than 2,500 words in length.
Clearly state who they are from and whether they are sent in a personal capacity or sent on behalf of an organisation, and include a brief description of the submitting individual/organisation
Be emailed to [email protected]
The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, 25th July 2018.

Based on the received evidence, individuals and organisations will be invited to give further evidence during an open meeting of the APPG.

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It is vital that women and feminists submit evidence to this APPG. The slur 'T' is known to incite people to act hatefully towards feminists. When Maria MacLachlan was attacked by an individual who had just said prior they were going to "fuck up some Ts" the police officer felt that this should have been treated as a hate crime.

Imagine if someone had been filmed thumping someone of African heritage after saying they were going to 'fuck up some 'racist term of abuse', how about if someone was filmed thumping a gay man after tweeting they were going to 'fuck up some 'homophobic term of abuse'. It would be taken seriously, would never be dismissed as 'bravado. Why are women, feminist women in particular, not offered the same protection by hate crime law?

How many women feel unable to fully participate in our communities because we are afraid of misogynist assault?
How many women are afraid to attend political meetings because of anti-feminist harassment and assault?
How many women have anxiety, depression and other ill effects from misogyny and antifeminism?

How about the other end of Hate Crime/Speech? It is being used to specifically silence and harass women, feminist women in particular by proxy. Why was Posie Parker questioned for Hate Speech? How about Linda Bellos?

We need to submit evidence to this APPG pronto to make sure this does not happen - that Hate Crime law is not used maliciously to hurt women, particularly feminist women, or those assumed to be feminist.

Please could you join me on this thread to discuss what the key issues are so we can submit strong evidence, drawing on our personal experience to make sure we are not forgotten in the APPG and to make sure this is not going to be a way of making 'deadnaming' and 'misgendering' hate crimes where we can be lawfully punished, even imprisoned for stating facts or describing reality. This APPG is already known about widely in authoritarian, bullying ideological circles who seek to suppress free speech- so the submissions so far are likely to be very skewed in their favour.

Thanks.

*my addition

Excellent posts. Am thinking as well as these points we should also be talking more generally about impacts of misogyny not only on feminists but on all women - but feels v daunting to try to compose something as so pervasive . Is it useful to try though, what do others think?

Also, will the submissions be public does anyone know? - many will worry about this if yes - which rather goes to prove a point!

Damn! If I'd known the deadline was extended I'd have gone to bed two hours ago.

Alternativefacts
Am thinking as well as these points we should also be talking more generally about impacts of misogyny not only on feminists but on all women - but feels v daunting to try to compose something as so pervasive . Is it useful to try though, what do others think
I think we should try. Yes daunting but must be recorded imo. Its hard to know what to focus on though I agree. I was thinking I might use as an example that mp who blocked the upskirting bill as he said it hadnt been debated enough. Whats to 'debate' about assaulting women? If men in positions of authority making laws are misogynists doesnt it sends a message that hating women is acceptable?

Well done everyone for partaking. I have started this thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3318003-Bringing-your-MUST-DO-WOMENS-RIGHTS-consultations-together-with-links-and-timelines-thread to help keep on top of all of this!

Bumping this because the consultation closes on 15th August!

Also, please check out this thread for other consultations, etc which we need to participate in: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3318003-Bringing-your-MUST-DO-WOMENS-RIGHTS-consultations-together-with-links-and-timelines-thread?watched=1&msgid=80043228#80043228

Thanks for the reminder.

Bump

Bump

I imagine the trans lobby will be onto this like a rat up a drainpipe.

Thanks. I'll have a look this evening when I get home from work.

Do you think MNHQ would change the title of the thread to show the new date?

I'm going to report the OP and ask if they'll change but maybe it has more weight if it comes from you as the OP, SexMatters?

Thanks - I have messaged @mnhq hopefully they will be able to do it.

MNHQ for changing the thread title to the correct date. Much appreciated.

Bump

Bump - deadline extended to 15 Aug. Please respond, and ask that violent misogynistic language used against women (including using the word 'terf') should be considered 'hate speech'

Our response can be read here, if it helps:
www.letawomanspeak.org/hate-crime-response

Hello, name changed for this post for privacy reasons.

Here is my submission for the APPG Inquiry on Hate Crimes:

Response to Inquiry Questions:

Status Quo – What is the situation today?

What is the extent of hate crime and speech that is experienced by individuals or communities and what form does it take?

♣ Sex is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. Yet unlike race, sexual orientation or disability, violence and harassment against a person on the basis of their sex is not yet classified as a hate crime. Therefore, women have no legal protection from abuse that they suffer from on the basis of their sex.Women make up more than 51% of the population, we deserve to be respected and protected by the law of the country.
♣ There is currently a toxic environment for women in the UK, hate crimes towards women are not taken seriously. This environment emboldens men who wish to abuse and silence women. There is a misogyny fuelled epidemic of violence against women and girls within our society. This creates a threatening environment for women so that they cannot participate in public life because of their sex.
♣ 90% of British women experience street harassment before the age of 17 and 85% of women aged 17-24 have been subjected to unwanted sexual advances.
♣ 85-90% of sexual assault victims are women. The vast majority of the perpetrators of these crimes are men against women. Men commit 90% of violent crime in the UK and 98% of sexual crime (rape and sexual assault, paedophilia etc.)
♣ There are 1,070 rape convictions each year in England and Wales. 90% of rape victims know the perpetrator.
♣ Over 400,000 women are sexually assaulted in England and Wales every year.
♣ An estimated 85,000 women are raped in England and Wales every year
♣ In 2011/12, Police reported nearly 800,000 incidents of domestic violence. 31% of women have experienced one or more instances of domestic abuse since the age of 16.
♣ On average, 2 women are killed every week by a current or former partner
♣ 23,000 girls under 15 are at risk of FGM every year in the UK. An estimated 66,000 women living in England and Wales have been subject to FGM. FGM was made illegal in 1985, but so far there have been no convictions
♣ In 2012, 1,485 cases of forced marriage were dealt with by the Forced Marriage Unit. 82% involved female victims. The oldest victim was 71. The youngest victim was 2.
♣ There has been a recent upsurge in misogynistic abuse directed at women who wish to meet to discuss women’s rights. This has included a range of tactics including targeted hate on social media to women, physical intimidation taking the form of masked young men blocking the entrance to a women’s rights meeting all the way up to a 60 year old woman being brutally assaulted because she was female and wished to attend a meeting on women’s rights. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5607919/Transgender-activist-battered-radical-feminist-Speakers-Corner-brawl.html
Women’s rights groups who have organised peaceful meetings have been targeted with bomb threats by anti-women activists blogs.spectator.co.uk/2018/06/why-are-women-who-discuss-gender-getting-bomb-threats/

♣ At present there are many men who have perpetrated misogynistic hateful abuse against women who keep their jobs and their status among their peers even after their abuse has been made public. This puts women off becoming involved in politics and other forms of public life. Some recent examples: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-hard-left-makes-a-mission-of-misogyny-6k3spm6d6

♣ Women are frequently the target of groups of men online who gang together to bully and silence women on social media. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook refuse to sanction men who make death and rape threats to women. Neither of these platforms have an option to report misogyny. The government does not regulate the internet or any social media and does not provide any safeguarding measures towards women for the threats and actual violence that happen to them as a result of social media
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/21/twitter-failing-women-taking-long-remove-misogynistic-abuse/

How does experiencing hate crime and hate speech impact on individuals, communities and their values?

♣ Violent threats towards women prevent them from walking alone in public places and meeting up with other women without men. It makes women vulnerable and makes public space male dominated. This creates an uneven representation of people and their values in communities.
♣ This impacts everyone, especially the children that women are responsible for as it also prevents them from accessing public life fully.

How does online hate speech and hate crime impact on community cohesion? Is there a link?

♣ Misogynistic hate speech and crimes perpetrated against women on the basis of their sex isolate women and the children that they are responsible for from participating fully in public life. When women are fearful of being able to meet and congregate in public, communities generally experience even more violence and in turn become even less available for women and children to participate in public life. Overall, the whole community is negatively impacted by areas becoming more violent and lawless due to women not being properly allowed access to public spaces. This impacts deprived areas more than others, but is a constant reality even in the most affluent of areas.

How does hate crime and hate speech contribute to extremism, including intra-community sectarianism?

♣ Extreme hatred and violence towards women is fuelled by the unchecked and unregulated power of the internet. Through the medium of anonymous social media, men who may have started with low levels of dislike towards women and girls become radicalised to assert greater and greater levels of vitriol online towards women and girls. Women are regularly called obscene names and threatened with rape and death.
♣ Women who challenge men’s sexual liberation rights movements like pornography, prostitution, paedophilia and transvestism are often labelled with obscene and demeaning titles designed to silence and frighten them. This behaviour does not stay on line. It radiates out into real life with serious implications to women and their children.Women are often doxxed, have their employers targeted to try to get them to lose their jobs and are subjected to real life violence.
♣ Caroline Criado Perez was subjected to death and rape threats due to her visibility as a feminist woman on social media. The police were eventually called in to assist. However, if misogyny was a hate crime, this matter could have been stopped in its tracks once it began. www.ft.com/content/1d250ebe-bf1b-11e7-b8a3-38a6e068f464
This escalation of violence and threats culminates in certain sections of women, in particular Muslim, Jewish women, black women and feminist women being targeted by various factions of misogynistic men. These women are targeted by racist and hateful men from outside their communities as well as men from their own communities. This fuels extremism and intra community sectarianism. Misogyny escalates racist and sectarian violence.

How does hate speech and bullying impact children and young people in schools and educational institutions?

♣ Figures published in September 2015 showed that 5,500 sexual offences were recorded in UK schools over a three year period, including 600 rapes. A poll of 16-18 year olds in 2010 found 29 per cent of girls experienced unwanted sexual touching at school and a further 71 per cent said they heard sexual name-calling towards girls at school daily, or a few times each week.
♣ Girls and women are being denied a safe and inclusive environment for their education apart from when they are in single sex institutions. Being fearful and being harassed and assaulted at schools prevents girls and young women from being able to concentrate, focus and achieve. This has repercussions for the rest of their lives; reducing their options for future employment as well as their mental well-being over the course of their lives.
♣ See article regarding sex attacks in playgrounds at schools in the UK www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/playground-sex-assaults-are-becoming-an-epidemic-wcxh63tll

Thanks Micro. Thanks everyone.

Sitting down to do this later today.

How does hate speech impact on the emotional and mental-health of individuals who are targeted at a street and online level?

♣ Women are suffering from PTSD, chronic stress and anxiety as a result of misogyny inflicted upon them by men who do not consider that women deserve to live their lives in safety and with dignity.
♣ Many women simply leave social media as it becomes stressful and detrimental to their mental health. This is unfair as the digital domain is as much a part of everyday life as physical public spaces. Women deserve to be a part of the digital landscape and to have their say.
♣ In real life, out in public on the street, women are fearful for their safety on the basis of their sex as women are frequently assaulted and raped if they walk alone on the street.
♣ This creates a culture of fear and effectively blocks women from leading their lives freely without distress.If any other group, i.e. religious group or protected group experienced violence and death at the rate that women as a group do, there would be an outcry. It is shocking that the state is allowing this situation to continue for women.
♣ www.bustle.com/p/heres-how-sexism-can-affect-your-mental-health-according-to-science-62229

Recommendations – What can we do to build community cohesion?

Best practice: What schemes, initiatives and projects exist to build community cohesion in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech?

♣ Current educational programs that target sexist stereotypes about what behaviour and personality women and girls should have are starting to break down the unconscious biases that currently work against women in our society and lead to misogyny and violence against women and girls.

What can national and local government do to increase community cohesion in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech?

♣ Nationwide misogyny hate crime reporting would send a clear message to society that to harass, intimidate and threaten women and girls is not acceptable, either morally or legally. It would provide a clear framework for prosecuting crime that has been committed against women on the basis of their sex. It would simplify the legal system and make the jobs of police officers and judges easier, thus saving money for the state as well as protecting women.
♣ Since Nottingham police included misogyny as a hate crime in April 2016, women have reported feeling safer and men have reported that they have challenged their own behaviour towards women.
♣ Educational programs that target sexist and misogynistic attitudes to women should be reinforced and expanded upon in schools and workplaces.
♣ Women need to have their single sex spaces protected. Women need protection from men because as a group they are generally physically smaller and weaker than men. The violence in society is overwhelmingly committed by men and overwhelmingly perpetrated against women. These spaces protect women from male violence in prisons, domestic violence shelters as well as being safe in public parks etc. by using female only toilets and changing rooms. Also, sex segregated activities such as swimming pools / gyms allow women of faith from Muslim and Jewish and other faiths to participate fully in public life.
♣ The definition of what a woman is needs to be protected. Men who identify as women should be given their own separate set of legal protections but women’s rights should remain for women, not for both men and women. The crime statistics for men who identify as women remain exactly the same as for men who identify as men. They remain a threat to women in the same way that men as a group are. journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016885

What role do police forces play in increasing community cohesion in the face of rising hate crime and hate speech? Are there practical examples of their work, say after major terrorist attacks when cohesion may be affected?

♣ While police are doing a brilliant job in tough circumstances, they need to be trained to understand that they have their own biases against women as they have already been shown to have against people of colour and minority religions in the UK. They need to be trained to approach reports of crimes fairly against women, e.g. rape should not be assumed to be the woman’s fault (e.g., what were you wearing, why were you out without a boyfriend etc.) Please see the recent UK gang rape case against a very young woman where the older men escaped any punishment. www.independent.co.uk/voices/northern-ireland-ulster-rugby-rape-trial-not-guilty-im-with-her-a8280066.html