Campaigning saves legal aid for domestic violence rule applicants

You may have seen our recent blog about government proposals to cut legal aid for women making applications under the ‘domestic violence rule’. Under this rule women who come to the UK on a spousal visa but then face domestic violence can leave their marriage and apply for permission to stay in the UK in their own right.  Applications under the rule are complex and have to be completed within strict time limits. IKWRO was worried that without legal...
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In pursuit of justice for women: new UN report

Last week the UN agency for women launched its first report.  Progress of the World’s Women: In Pursuit of Justice takes a brave and broad look at women’s access to around the world, covering issues such as domestic violence, rape and discrimination.  The report also charts some of the important reforms that recent years have brought, but highlights the need for further progress.  For example while 52 countries have made marital rape a crime during the last century,...
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Legal aid reforms and domestic violence: email your MP now

Under what's called the 'domestic violence rule' women who come to the UK on a spousal visa but then face domestic violence can leave their marriage and apply for permission to stay in the UK in their own right.  Applications under the domestic violence rule are complex and IKWRO usually hooks women up with a legal aid solicitor to help them through the process.  Sadly we may not be able to do this for much longer. In March we wrote about government proposals which...
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Snip, snip, snip. That’s right, the coalition’s still cutting away at women’s rights…

Last week we wrote about cuts to ESOL classes.  This week the government announced that it would be getting rid of the Female Genital Mutilation Coordinator.  As of tomorrow - 1 April - the only post across all of Whitehall which is dedicated to tackling FGM in the UK will go.  Sounds like a bad April Fool's joke, doesn't it?  But it's true.  An estimated 24,000 girls in the UK are at risk of female genital mutilation and last month, the government launched new guidelines to...
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