The Austin Lafferty Solicitors & Estate Agents Blog

Shelter Scotland has reported a sharp rise in the number of visits to its website from women looking for help and advice on domestic abuse following its recent Facebook advertising campaign.

The campaign was launched to coincide with the weekend’s Old Firm football match which Strathclyde Police says is often the catalyst for a spike in reported incidents of domestic abuse. The charity saw a 600% increase in visits around the match compared with previous weekends when the same adverts had been running.

Alison Watson, Head of Services at Shelter Scotland, said: “These figures show that hundreds, perhaps thousands of people across Scotland, mainly women, went online last weekend to find advice and help on issues related to domestic abuse. And they weren’t just browsing. The average length of visit to our advice pages increased to several minutes.”

“With a 600% rise in visits to our domestic abuse advice pages, we think that reported cases may only be the tip of the ice-berg and that there could be hundreds more unreported cases of people living in fear of or suffering abuse.”

Over £6.5 million of Lottery money is to be spent on supporting families living with domestic abuse across Scotland.

The Big Lottery Fund, the largest of the National Lottery Good Cause distributors, has announced a package of funding worth £6,494,961 to 18 projects across Scotland. This funding means there will be greater access to proven support services for women and families who have lived through domestic abuse.

There are currently 50,000 recorded incidents of domestic abuse in Scotland each year and Scottish Women’s Aid believes that one in five women will experience domestic abuse at some point in their lives.

Heather Coady, Children’s Policy Manager at Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) said: “Scottish Women’s Aid welcomes the news that the Big Lottery Fund has funded domestic abuse projects across Scotland to the tune of £6.5 million. This is a significant injection of cash towards an area of work that supports vulnerable women, children and young people living with the trauma of domestic abuse and recognition that this is an area desperately in need of funding.”

SWA have also been awarded £367,109 to develop a nationwide CEDAR Children Experiencing Domestic Abuse Recovery project to work with families and women to help them move on from the emotional and social difficulties experienced as a consequence of domestic abuse.

The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has spoken at an event to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

In his speech, he said:

“We are all aware that violence against women and girls takes many forms. It includes rape, domestic violence and harassment at work. There is abuse in school, female genital mutilation and sexual violence in armed conflict. This violence spans the globe. And it is predominantly inflicted by men.

These are the facts.

Whether in developing or developed countries, the pervasiveness of this unacceptable violence should shock us all. Violence — and in many cases the mere threat of it — is one of the most significant barriers to women’s full equality.

All women and girls have the fundamental right to live free of violence. This right is enshrined in international human rights and humanitarian law. And it lies at the heart of my “UNiTE to End Violence against Women” campaign. 

Since its launch in 2008, the campaign has galvanized Governments, civil society, the corporate sector, athletes, artists, women, men and young people around the world. The social mobilisation platform “Say NO — UNiTE” has recorded more than 2 million activities worldwide — from protest marches to public awareness campaigns, from legislative advocacy to assistance for victims.

Many of these activities have received support from the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. The Fund is now 15 years old. It has delivered grants worth $77 million to 339 initiatives in 126 countries and territories.

Our challenge is to ensure that the message of “zero tolerance” is heard far and wide. To do that, we must engage all of society — and especially young people — in particular young men and boys. Too many young men still grow up surrounded by outmoded male stereotypes.

Two years ago, I launched a Network of Men Leaders to address this issue. Older men should set a good example in saying no to such violence. We need to promote healthy models of masculinity. But, to do that, young men and boys must be encouraged to become the advocates we need. We need this generation of men to make a break from the ingrained behaviour of generations.

We want people everywhere to speak up; to say “No” to violence against women and girls.”