Notice of Motion

GREEN GROUP AND LABOUR GROUP

 

    SUPPORTING THE ANTI-HARRASSMENT CLUB

 

That this council recognises the work of the local organisation the Anti-Harassment Club to bring to light more than 120 testimonies of gender-based street harassment in Brighton & Hove since June 2020. We call on all Councillors to express their support for this important local campaign group and its message;

This Notice of Motion therefore:

·           Requests that the Chief Executive writes with urgency to Katy Bourne PCC, to request that, in line with a similar pilot undertaken by Nottinghamshire Police in 2016, that she commit to adopting a pilot ‘misogyny as a hate crime’ policy locally, in order to enable our city to:

-       collect the data necessary to understand and evaluate the prevalence and nature of public sexual harassment in our community;

-       utilise such data to understand the impact of this on our local community and how this can be addressed;
- to establish work with partners to establish support for victims of public sexual harassment

And further requests that:

-      the Chief Executive writes to the government to request that misogyny is made a hate crime in England and Wales as part of an overhaul of legislation, as recently recommended by the Law Commission.

 

Proposed by: Cllr Powell                                 Seconded by: Cllr Grimshaw

Supporting information:

The Anti-Harassment Club is an activist organisation based in the city. It is dedicated to combating, eradicating, and raising awareness of sexual and gender-based harassment in public spaces, thereby making the city’s streets safer for everybody. In August 2020 the Argus reported that: “Girls who are 12 years old onwards have had people approaching them taking pictures, up-skirting and committing sex acts at them on the beach.”    


Following the pilot ‘misogyny hate crime policy’ in Nottinghamshire, research undertaken by the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University has recommended national roll-out, a request also supported by the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-44740362

The Law Commission’s consultation launched 23rd September 2020 has recommended that misogyny is added to the understanding of ‘hate crime’ in England and Wales: https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/hate-crime/

 

The next reading for misogyny as a hate crime is a Private Members' Bill in the House of Commons on 13th November 2020: https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2019-21/hatecrimemisogyny.html