On Wednesday 23 June 2021, our director Pragna Patel will give evidence on behalf of SBS to the People’s Tribunal of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). CEDAW is the body of independent experts from around the world that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the international treaty on the rights of women. SBS’ testimony will focus on the particular circumstances of black and minority ethnic (BME) women subject to gender-based violence in the UK. It will reflect our efforts to ensure that BME women’s rights are upheld to internationally agreed standards on equality and non-discrimination and to have CEDAW enshrined in domestic law. Our evidence will amongst other things, touch on the barriers faced by migrant women, the trend towards gender neutral policies on domestic abuse and women’s lack of equal access to justice brought about by cuts to legal aid and the rise of parallel legal systems that reinforce fundamentalist forms of coercive control over women and girls, and, the government’s attacks on judicial reviews. See Pragna Patel’s Witness Statement here – Witness Statement Pragna
