Stop Street Harassment

Making Public Spaces Safe and Welcoming

Archives for October 2016

HABITAT 3: Men Talking to Men

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Today was day three of HABITAT 3 in Quito, Ecuador. My boss asked me to attend four sessions that were not pitched as being specifically about women or gender or sexual violence (though there are a few of those across the conference, many of them involving UN Women in some way) with the hopes that I could help insert those topics into the conversation during the Q&A. What I found when I attended the sessions was what she and I suspected, without those items in the title or being pitched as the main topic, gender and women’s experiences and views barely came up at all. It reminded me of college where unless I took a course in the women’s studies division, the courses basically focused on men. As a history major, I’ll always remember my first women’s history class and my relief — “here’s where the women are!”

As an example of the four sessions today, one focused on the active transportation of bicycling and walking and how having fewer vehicles on the roads benefits cities in various ways. In theory, yes, I agree. Here is where I had issues. All of the presenter were men and they seemed to only be focused on men. The data they presented from their various cities did not include a gender break down. Their discussions about barriers to having more people walk or cycle did not include street harassment. Women’s unique experiences were not included AT ALL. What an oversight. You cannot expect to see more women walking and cycling until the issue of street harassment and safety are addressed and ended!

10-17-16-habitat-3The first three sessions I attended went over time or nearly went over time and so there either was no time for questions or only time for 2-3 questions. Thus, I did not get to insert gender during the Q&A … until the final session. This was a session on urban rules and governance. The moderator was a female judge from Malawi and panelists included an EU parliament member, Sierra Leone mayor and minister in Singapore. These three were all men. They talked about how to pass policies and laws, how to work across local, regional and national government, and more.

The process for Q&A was to have a few people ask their questions and then the panelists could answer them in a grouping. I was the fourth person to ask a question in a group and the first woman. The three men went on and on about their own work and observations. I actually asked a question:

In most countries, women are under-represented in government and law, especially at the national level, so what is being done to ensure that women’s unique experiences, such as sexual harassment while in public spaces, is taken into account in the creation of and enforcement of policies and laws?

When the time came for the panel to respond, none of the men addressed my question. They only responded to the topics raised by the men. The moderator kindly tried to incorporate a response to me in her remarks, but even then it was pretty basic: yes, the views of women, children, persons with disabilities, etc should be included as we pass policies and laws.

Needless to say, I was really disappointed in the series of sessions and in the response (or, nonresponse) to my question. I am tired of men talking to men about men’s experiences when women are in the room, are trying to be active participants, and have unique viewpoints to offer!

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“You ungrateful bitch”

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Another day as a woman in New York City: a man on the street screams at me, “You are beautiful,” and when I don’t respond he screams, “That’s it, that’s as far as I’m going to go, you ungrateful bitch.”

Where??? Do??? Men??? Learn??? This??? Behavior??? How is this an acceptable thing to do?!?!?

Optional: What’s one way you think we can make public places safer for everyone?

Not electing Donald Trump.

– Maddie

Location: Midtown East, Manhattan, NY

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

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HABITAT 3 – Safe Cities Partners Meeting

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10-16-16-safe-cities-partner-meeting-quito-ecuadorToday was my second day in Quito, Ecuador, for HABITAT 3. I spent the morning with women from eight countries (Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, India and me in the USA) who each are working to address sexual harassment in public spaces. Many of the people in the room have worked hard for years to see this issue incorporated into the formal UN agenda and they finally succeeded in the Sustainable Development Goals and New Urban Agenda. Given this important change, we discussed the strategic role our organizations need to have when policies are set for nations around the world; we want to ensure that the policies are good.

One challenge shared by several women was terminology: what is sexual harassment versus sexual violence and how should each be treated under the law and by society? A woman from India said they had even faced backlash for trying to expand the definition of rape to be more inclusive.

A woman from Guatemala shared the good news that they have had progress with policies by working with congress women. Many women in the room agreed that having women allies in governing bodies is really helpful when it comes to this issue.

A highlight of the morning for me was hearing from a staff member of UN Women in Cairo who has been involved in their safe cities programme for a few years. She shared how they worked with the national government in a number of ways to pass the country’s first ever law against sexual harassment. She herself sat on the committee that drafted the law. What they ended up doing was instead of writing a completely new law, they amended an existing one. This made passing it easier and it also helps make implementation easier since the police and criminal justice system folks are familiar with the original law and simply needed to be updated on the amendment.

dsc04362We also discussed various logistical things and planning future events and conferences.

Overall, it was encouraging to hear that various UN agencies as well as international organizations working with grassroots women have prioritized making public spaces free from sexual harassment and violence.

In the afternoon, I joined Elsa D’Silva, the co-founder of Safecity in India, in sightseeing around Quito. We both had been warned by various people that Quito was unsafe and so we were pleasantly surprised to never be harassed or hassled. Instead, many people assisted us, from police officers to bus drivers to foodstand people. And I have gone running alone both mornings at a lovely park and I have felt completely safe there. For that, I am grateful.

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“I leaned away and shook my head but he didn’t stop”

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I was about 15 years old, riding a bus at night with a female friend. It was before 9 p.m. at night in a Denver suburb. A man sat right next to me, against my body, and was touching my cheek. I leaned away and shook my head but he didn’t stop. I thought he had a knife in his other hand but I cant be sure. There were very few people on the bus. One man told him to leave me alone, and told the bus driver to do something. He didn’t stop and the driver didn’t do anything. Thankfully he didn’t get off the bus when we did. Maybe they told him not to.

– Anonymous

Location: Denver suburbs, Arapahoe County, Colorado

Need support? Call the toll-free National Street Harassment hotline: 855-897-5910

Share your street harassment story for the blog.
See the book 50 Stories about Stopping Street Harassers for ideas.

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HABITAT 3: Women’s Assembly – Safe Cities Session

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10-15-16-waiting-in-line-to-get-registered-for-habitat-3
Waiting in line to register for HABITAT 3, Quito, Ecuador

I recently started a new consultancy position with UN Women and as part of my job, I am in Quito, Ecuador, for HABITAT 3, the third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development. Tens of thousands of people from around the world are convening to discuss cities.

Today was the Women’s Assembly, “designed to celebrate the contributions to and leadership of the Women and Human Settlements’ movement in championing sustainable and women inclusive urban development.”

In the morning, we heard from various UN leaders and grassroots women about the importance of including women in all efforts. In the afternoon, we divided up into 10 sessions to focus on 10 topics (e.g. economic rights, leadership, and safety). In our groups, in addition to discussing our own experiences and ideas, we came up with recommendations for what needs to happen by member states to ensure women’s views and experiences and needs are included and acted upon.

Safe Cities for Women and Girls breakout session
Safe Cities for Women and Girls breakout session

I was the documenter for the Safe Cities for Women and Girls session. Our session coordinator was Kathryn Travers, Executive Director of Women in Cities International, and she shared this to set the stage:

“Safe cities and safe public spaces free of violence against women and girls are increasingly recognized as a priority issue for sustainable development. The fact that safe cities for women figures explicitly as a goal in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a binding international commitment by Member States, strengthens its position as a key issue for implementation as part of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), a normative non-binding international framework.

SDG 5, on gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls specifically calls for ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) including in public spaces (sub-target 2). This language is mimicked in the NUA and goes on to include mentions of harassment more specifically in (para 13 c). SDG 11 calls on Member States to Make Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, resilient and Sustainable, and sub-target 7 specifies “By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities”…

The NUA Para 100 calls on Member States to “support the provision of well-designed networks of safe, inclusive for all inhabitants, accessible, green, and quality public spaces and streets, free from crime and violence, including sexual harassment and gender-based violence (…) bringing people into the public spaces, promoting walkability and cycling towards improving health and well-being”. Finally, echoing the SDG 5.5, the NUA calls for the empowerment of women and others to participate in urban and territorial development and decision-making (para 155).”

In this context, these were our collective conclusions:

dsc04336We want member states to recognize safety as a right to the city and:

  1. Keep women at the center of efforts including by including women as leaders at all levels;
  2. Collect data at the national level through creative and new methods;
  3. Learn from new practices that are shared in a central place;
  4. Have multi-stake holder and multi-level efforts;
  5. Commit funding to these different initiatives so they can actually happen;
  6. Monitor and report back on efforts and hold governments (local, national) accountable

On our end, we made four commitments for what we’d be do to ensure these outcomes.

  1. We commit to making available the knowledge, tools, successful practices as part of comprehensive rights-based approaches, and key experts (both professional and grassroots women) to national, regional, state and local governments to implement safe cities for women and girls initiatives in cities. Support and capacity building for both grassroots leaders and government stakeholders will be offered as part of this commitment.
  2. Recognizing the special vulnerabilities that girls and young women face, we commit to support girls’ empowerment through processes including intergenerational dialogues to speak for themselves and transform their cities to be safer and more inclusive for all girls and women.
  3. We commit to innovating participatory action research tools, including technology, and approaches for gender transformative and inclusive safe cities for women and girls initiatives and making them available to cities worldwide
  4. We commit to implement safe cities initiatives that recognize women and girls as essential agents of change in a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral and multi-level partnership informed by existing global frameworks on safe cities free of violence against women and girls that can be adapted to city and country context.
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