End violence against women and girls

This page introduces our campaign work to end violence against women and girls.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to street-based or home-based violence and abuse.

We’ll listen to those affected by abuse, help keep people safe and help get justice for those that have been a victim.

As part of the UN’s worldwide campaign – 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence – we put on annual events in November and December and share information to help end violence against women and girls in the borough.

Why ending violence against women and girls is important – the statistics

• in the UK, 1,425 women were killed by men in the 10 years to 2018, which is around one killing every 3 days
• in the year ending March 2020 an estimated that 4.9 million women had been victims of sexual assault in their lifetimes
• 7 out of 10 women have experienced some form of sexual harassment in public
• 1 in 4 women experience domestic abuse during their lifetime
• in Hackney around 20 per cent of all high-risk domestic abuse involves adult sons abusing their mothers
• in the past 10 years out of all killings, more than 9 in 10 killers were men
• in the past year out of the total number of rapes, 98.5% of the rapists were identified as men

Ways you can get involved

• share our tweets and Facebook posts on your own channels to amplify messaging
• if you’re a business or community group, download the posters to display in your establishment or order leaflets by emailing press@hackney.gov.uk
• if you witness abusive behaviour intervene where safe to do so, or in an emergency call the police on 999
• register your interest in becoming a male ally to women and girls and receive training
• download the campaign materials to display in your palace or work or business

Ending domestic abuse

We campaign and work with partner agencies across Hackney to raise awareness of domestic abuse.

If you are experiencing domestic abuse, think you might be hurting someone, visit our domestic abuse support page for more information.

Posters – hackney violence against women and girls

• poster 1 – supporting domestic abuse victims / survivors (PDF 196kb)
• poster 2 – changing domestic abuse perpetrator behaviour (PDF 301kb)
• poster 3 – preventing public space abuse of women and girls (PDF 195kb)
• poster 4 – encouraging men and boys to keep women and girls safe in public (PDF 240kb)

If you want to display the posters in your agency you can download them or you can request printed copies from us. To request a printed copy, email the Domestic Abuse Intervention Service via dais@hackney.gov.uk.

Street-based harassment – what to do

In an emergency always call the police on 999, or report a non-emergency incident to the police on 101.

If the incident was on public transport you can contact the British Transport Police by calling or texting 61016.

You can also report anti-social behaviour in parks and on the streets to the Council by emailing asbteam@hackney.gov.uk or calling 020 8356 3310.

Female genital mutilation (FGM)

To find out more about FGM, see City of London & Hackney Safeguarding Children Board’s FGM page.

The City and Hackney multi-agency FGM protocol provides agencies with information on how to safeguard women and girls who are at risk of FGM or have undergone FGM.

See City and Hackney multi-agency FGM protocol (PDF 720kb)

We also worked with key services and City and Hackney Safeguarding Children’s Board to develop a strategy against FGM.

See our tackling and preventing female genital mutilation strategy (PDF 707kb)

If you are worried a child is at risk contact our children’s social care team:

• telephone – 020 8356 5500
• email – fast@hackney.gov.uk

You can also contact the NSPCC FGM helpline: 0800 028 3550 or fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk

Eliminating violence against women and girls (VAWG) Hackney Strategy 2022 to 2025