Zero Tolerance has worked for over 20 years to end violence against women by challenging the attitudes and structures that sustain it.
We know that violence against women will not end until enough resources and energy are put into prevention activities including challenging gender stereotypes, updating the legal system, engaging boys and men in prevention, and empowering women – all work required by the Istanbul Convention.
Some of this work is happening already, but it is under-resourced, piecemeal across the country and often misunderstood by the key agencies that could make real change. If ratified the Istanbul Convention could provide a driver to ensure that prevention of VAW and support for survivors is taken seriously and implemented consistently.
In the three years since the UK Government signed, but failed to ratify the Convention, over 400 women have been killed by men in England and Wales alone. Many more have been raped, harassed, exploited and abused.
Zero Tolerance joins ICchange in calling on David Cameron to ratify the Istanbul Convention and demonstrate that his government see preventing men’s violence against women as a priority – not as something that can be put off for a more ‘convenient’ time.