URGENT: Imminent public meeting in Wales concerning domestic abuse – Merthyr Tydfil, 14 February

The purpose of this post is to alert you to an opportunity to influence a plan by a government – the Welsh government – to introduce militant feminist-driven provisions concerning Domestic Abuse (henceforth ‘DA’) which ignore the international evidence base on DA. Why is this important? Because it’s known other governments (including that of the UK, of which Wales is a part) are looking to the Welsh initiative to provide a lead. It’s known in particular that other European countries are interested in following Wales’s lead. Please do what you can to support the fight against the Welsh initiative (more details below), and if you can, attend the meeting in Merthyr Tydfil next week, on 14 February.

J4MB will inevitably have a strong interest in DA. While independent evidence shows that female-on-male DA is at least as common as male-on-female DA, support for abused women is considerably more substantial than support for abused men. We won’t be calling for support for abused women to be reduced. We’ll be calling for state support for abused men to be increased.

The veteran DA campaigner Erin Pizzey recently wrote a powerful article on ‘Working with Violent Women’:

http://www.avoiceformen.com/women/working-with-violent-women/

We were interested to learn recently of the initiative in Wales. A White Paper has been written which ignores the international evidence about DA, and reflects a militant feminist analysis throughout. The consultation period ends shortly, 22 February, so there’s no time to be lost in engaging with the Welsh government.

The White Paper:

http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/consultation/121126evawdaconsultationen.pdf

It’s believed that both the British Psychological Society and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy will be providing written submissions to the Welsh Government.

Sue Parker Hall, a qualified psychotherapist who’s well-known for her work and writings in the area of rage behaviours, has submitted an interesting paper in response to the Welsh Government. It’s reproduced here with her permission:

130204 Sue Parker Hall’s response to the Welsh Assembly’s White Paper

A short extract from Sue’s paper:

Within the White Paper DA is conceptualised as:

• a mainly male behaviour rather than a human behaviour
• a ‘one person’ issue rather than a relational or systemic issue
• political (DA is caused by men holding sexist beliefs) rather than psychological
• homogenous; having a monolithic, predetermined reason rather than related to a unique set of circumstances and
• having its roots in a single cause (male sexism) rather than the variety of other possible causes which practitioners and academic researchers in the field have regularly identified over the last twenty years.

In short, I would argue that the statistics and underpinning assumptions, and consequently the methodology for dealing with DA, are flawed and have been regularly contradicted in empirical research here and in the United States…

Sue runs a blog http://empathicangermanagement.wordpress.com. Her email address is sueparkerhall@btconnect.com.

It’s understood that other individuals have also made written submissions to the Welsh government.

There’s to be a consultation meeting at the following address, from 9.30 – 12.30, on Thursday 14 February. Members of the public are invited:

Violence Against Women and Domestic Abuse Team, Community Safety Division, Welsh Government, Rhyd-y-car Business Park, Merthyr Tydfil CF48 1UZ

Tel: 0300 062 8053

Email: vawdateam@wales.gsi.gov.uk

While there are no restrictions on numbers, it’s requested that individuals planning to attend the meeting complete a booking form:

http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dsjlg/consultation/121212eventsformen.doc

Given the little time remaining, it’s better to email rather than mail the completed document – email it to vawdateam@wales.gsi.gov.uk.

While Sue Parker Hall is unfortunately unable to attend the event due to other commitments, as I am, it’s come to my attention that an individual from Healing Men http://healingmen.wordpress.com will be there. He invites anyone interested in meeting him at the event (or afterwards) to contact him at info@healing-men.net or contact him through the organisation’s blog:

http://healingmen.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/militant-feminists-milifems-in-wales-uk/

Please do what you can to support this important initiative. It’s an opportunity to make a real impact in an important area. Thank you.