BLatent Potential

1. BLatent Potential Karen Chouhan

2. Peepul Centre • From £60 - £16million • Expansive and inclusive vision of humanity • Central to the 1990 Trust and wider social movements

3. Women in equality work • Shami Chakrabarti – Liberty • Dawn Stephenson - Black Londoners Forum • Milena Buyum – National Assembly Against Racism • Commission for Equalities and Human Rights being driven by women's equality Unit

4. CEHR • One of the difficulties was the ‘whitewash’ • Inadequate recognition of differences of need and rights of representation • Uneven legislation – argued for a gender duty – important to mainstreaming • EOC recently called a meeting of Black people to inform their race policy/ practice good initiative but needs to be much more embedded

5. CID • Citizenship – oaths of allegiance and English tests • Cohesion – multiculturalism is dead? • Immigration and Asylum • Incarceration/internment – anti terrorist legislation • Integration – who has segregated who? • ID cards • Diversity – equal value? Strength in diversity? • Discourse – Blaming the victim

6. Educational achievement

7. Employment

8. Unemployment

9. Other stats • 2.35 million Black women • 2 Black women MPs • Female prisoners: Black = 23.9%, Asian = 0.9%, Chinese & Other = 4.7%

10. Trafficking • Women in particularly are at risk and victims of this trade, particularly migrant workers who may be employed in low paid jobs, with little educational skills and no access to basic employment rights including maternity or sickness leave. • In March 2003, the Home Office launched a pilot scheme under which adult female victims of trafficking for the purposes of prostitution are offered protection and a range of support services, such as counselling and health checks in safe accommodation managed by the Poppy project, an NGO based in London.

11. Criteria for support- problematic • That the victim must have been involved in prostitution in the UK • She must have been forcibly exploited to provide labour or services • She must be currently involved in prostitution or have left in the previous 30 days • She must come forward to the authorities • She must be willing to cooperate with the authorities. • In the following countries Jordan and Nigeria schemes have been developed in order to tackle the issue of trafficking in these countries.

12. ‘Honour’ Violence • “violence or the threat of violence is used as a means of punishment and control. In the most extreme cases, this can result in permanent disfigurement and even death. So-called “honour” crimes are treated leniently in the legal codes of many countries”.

13. ‘Domestic’ violence • Domestic violence is the major cause of death and disability for European women aged 16 to 44 and accounts for more death and ill health than cancer or traffic accidents. • More likely to experienced by Black women but is perhaps more hidden

14. Racist and sexist violence • “Grace Patrick Akpan was stopped by police officers for an identity check in Catanzaro, Italy, in February 1996. When she told them that she was an Italian citizen, they answered that “a black woman cannot be an Italian citizen”, and described her over the police radio as “a coloured prostitute”. She was physically assaulted by the officers and required two weeks’ hospital treatment on release. In October 1999, almost three years later, the officers responsible were found guilty of abusing their powers and causing Grace Patrick Akpan injuries. They were sentenced to just two months’ probation”.

15. Refugee and Asylum seekers Amnesty International • Women refugees and asylum seekers often find themselves caught in an inescapable cycle of violence, which is hard to get out of. One situation can lead to another and before they are aware they are vulnerable and swamped in a sea of violence, abuse and exploitation. • “Many refugees, especially women, are abused during their flight in search of safety. The abusers may be border guards, smugglers, pirates, members of armed groups, even other refugees”. • “The pressures of life in camps for refugees and the internally displaced often lead to an increase in sexual and domestic violence against women. Community structures which might otherwise protect women have broken down”.

16. Health • “Multiple Identities and access to health: The experience of black and minority ethnic women”. Equal Opportunities Commission. 2003 • “Cultural assumptions and preconceived attitudes about the women obscured their right to be seen as individuals. In the doctor's surgery they were defined through childcare or inability to speak English - thus they were seen as ‘black single mothers’ or ‘demanding Asian women’ before they were seen as a person”. • “The women’s ‘difference’ in terms of language, diets, and ways of childcare framed how they were perceived in the health care system”. • “The lower income and refugee women saw the health, housing and welfare services as obstacles to happiness and well being. The women who worked in the health service experienced equal opportunities as rhetoric, not practice”

17. Future • Generational change • Much more awareness/ communication • More women's action • UN and EU actions will have an effect • Internationally there is some change • But we need many more projects like this • Representation, engagement, self organisation and working together must be fostered.