The End Violence Against Women (EVAW) Coalition is a UK-wide coalition of more than 85 women’s organisations and others working to end violence against women and girls (VAWG) in all its forms.
This briefing has been compiled by the EVAW Coalition in an attempt to set out the consequences that COVID-19, and the necessary public health measures being implemented to control it, may have for women and girls who are experiencing or who are at risk of violence.
The briefing recommends:
- The Domestic Abuse and Victims Commissioners to feed into COBRA planning immediately;
- Abuse experts to be involved in every level of the crisis response planning at central, devolved and local government levels;
- Emergency funding for the charities which protect and support survivors, taking into account existing inequalities in sector funding and the need to protect BME “by and for” provision and support provision for disabled women;
- The immediate abolition of “no recourse to public funds” rules which prevent migrant women experiencing or at risk of abuse accessing refuges and other support including healthcare;
- Public awareness campaigns aimed at potential perpetrators and at neighbours/family/friends as well as those aimed at victims.
