N/H - RECLAIM THE NIGHT ~ Tues 17th March

by **lightertouch** Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:06 pm

“RECLAIM THE NIGHT” ~ march to end violence against women!

Tues 17 March 2009 …
Assemble @ 7pm (see route below) … Cardiff city centre

I am writing to invite you to a
Reclaim the Night march – a safe, empowering event to draw attention to
women’s right to walk the streets at night without the fear or reality of
violence, led by our members NUS Wales Women’s Committee.

A
survey by a young women’s magazine in 2005 found that 95% of women
don’t feel safe on the streets at night, and 65% don’t even feel safe
during the day. 73% worry about being raped and almost half say
they sometimes don’t want to go out because they fear for their own safety.
Women cannot claim equal citizenship while the threat of violence restricts our
lives as it does.

We
demand the right to use public space without fear.

We
demand this right as a civil liberty; we demand this as a human
right.

Reclaim
the Night is about taking back the right to walk our streets whenever we want
to, without the fear or reality of violence.

The march has 3 main
focuses:

· Challenge people’s attitudes
towards women who fall victim to sexual violence. A 2008 study by our members
NUS Wales Women’s Campaign and Amnesty International Wales found that 38% of
students think a woman is totally / partially responsible for being raped if she
has acted ‘in a flirtatious manner’, 28% if she is wearing ‘sexy or
revealing clothes’, 34% if she is drunk and 23% if she is ‘alone
and walking in a dangerous or deserted area’.

· Demand improved conviction
rates for rapists. All four Welsh police areas
are below even the appalling UK average (6.1% of reported rapes lead to
convictions). In 2006, South Wales Police convicted 5.9% of reported rapes (down
from 12.18% in 2004).

· Continue our campaign
to
get the Welsh Assembly Government to develop an integrated strategy to end
violence against women, complying with UN recommendations, addressing ALL
forms of violence against women and recognizing such violence as both a cause
and consequence of women’s inequality.

The front part of the march
will be self-defined women only, and will be followed by a mixed march so that
anyone, regardless of gender or gender identity, can show solidarity for the
cause.

Route

We will assemble at 7pm at the
start point indicated on the attached map (from town, walk along Castle Street,
over the bridge towards Canton, and we will be meeting on a triangular patch of
grass between the bridge and the turn-off to Cathedral Road!). We will march
through town, up Castle Street, under the underpass by the Hilton and to the
civic centre, ending up at the Welsh Assembly Government building in Cathays
Park at approx 8pm, where we will have speakers including Paula Hardy (Chief
Executive, Welsh Women’s Aid) and Naomi Brightmore (Director, WWNC),
+ more tbc.

Further information is
attached, and there is a Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=54203726942#wall_posts.

Reclaim the Night will be part
of our International Women’s Day celebrations (www.cymruwomen.org.uk)

Please forward widely to your
contacts. Hope to see you there!

Kind regards,

Hannah

by **lightertouch** Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:06 pm

B*%@dy hell... sorry about the formatting!

N/H - RECLAIM THE NIGHT ~ Tues 17th March

N/H - RECLAIM THE NIGHT ~ Tues 17th March

Re: N/H - RECLAIM THE NIGHT ~ Tues 17th March