Wokingham Borough Council is fully committed to ending all violence against women and children.
A motion was passed at the full council meeting on 18 November for the Equalities Cross Party Working Group to consider the below and report back to Council:
• Seek White Ribbon Accreditation for the Organisation within the next six months and encourage all male councillors to take the White Ribbon pledge, never to take part in, condone or stay silent about violence against women. As part of this, Wokingham Borough Council will consider appointing a male Councillor as an Ambassador for White Ribbon.
• Promote the Our Streets Now campaign to make street harassment of women a crime; asking the Chief Executive to write to the Home Secretary to ask them to make street harassment a specific crime; asking the Chief Executive to write to the four MPs who cover the Borough, as well as the Police and Crime Commissioner, to ask them to show their support for this campaign by signing the petition and by lobbying ministers to make street harassment a specific crime and encouraging elected members and residents to sign the petition.
• Ask schools, academies and colleges in the Borough to each develop a clear policy on tackling physical, mental, emotional or spiritual harassment of female pupils or staff, separate to their bullying policy and ask them to include education to prevent public sexual harassment, as part of their PSHE education.
The council referred the matter to the cross-party group so that its potential benefits could be considered as part of its comprehensive strategy to tackle all violence against women and children as well as all forms of domestic abuse.
