As we mark International Women’s Day, we are reminded that the only way to enjoy human rights fully is through the complete realisation of women’s rights. This is true for women in wider society, as it is for women from the most marginalised groups in our society.
Accelerate Action
This year’s theme is ‘Accelerate Action’ and taking decisive steps to achieve gender equality.
In the words of pro-suffrage activist and the ‘first Jewish feminist’, Ernestine Rose:
I suppose you all grant that woman is a human being. If she has a right to life, she has a right to earn support for that life. If a human being, she has a right to have her powers and faculties as a human being developed. If developed, she has a right to exercise them.
Most women seeking asylum in the UK are survivors of rape and other forms of gender-based violence. Too many of these women experience anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal ideation.
These are intensified by the UK’s current immigration detention system, which is extremely harmful to refugees, especially women and children, impacting their physical and mental well-being. There is no time limit on immigration detention in the UK, and refugees are often locked up for weeks and months on end, with no idea when they will be released.
Isle of Man
This is not an experience unfamiliar to members of the Jewish community. In the 1940s, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Europe were classified as enemy aliens and placed into internment camps in the UK, including those who had been found by a tribunal to be ‘genuine refugees’ fleeing persecution. Approximately 3,500 of those internees were women and children. By August 1940, public opinion had swung sharply against internment, and the UK government of the time started to reverse its policy.
Today
Today, we continue to make the case for human rights principles and, within them, women’s rights. We remind the UK government that a strong human rights framework, which also includes a compassionate asylum system, is vital to achieving progress in women’s rights. Together, we can #AccelerateAction to alter the government’s policy. After all, women’s rights are human rights.
Take Action
- Write to your MP to ensure there is a 28-day time limit to immigration detention.
- Sign Women For Refugee Women’s Pledge to Welcome Every Woman and steer away from hostility towards refugee women – https://www.refugeewomen.co.uk/welcome-every-woman/welcomeeverywoman/
