women in london

(BMER Women - Black and Minority Ethnic and/or Refugee Women, including women seeking asylum)

• 26 September 2007
• Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BD
• Registration at 9am, start of conference 9.30am, close of conference 4.45pm

This full day national conference for women will examine recent and forthcoming laws affecting domestic violence and sexual violence and abuses predominately experienced by BMER women and women seeking asylum such as forced marriage, honour crimes, female genital mutilation (FGM) and trafficking. The focus on BMER women is not about singling out certain communities, but about recognising that BMER women experiencing violence are a specific group that have been marginalised and often denied access to justice.

Attending this timely conference will provide a unique opportunity to hear highly respected speakers and experts including politicians, parliamentarians, service providers, specialist lawyers, leading national campaign organisations and the police. This conference will provide a through grounding in the law and legal rights of BMER women and women seeking asylum experiencing violence, while offering an opportunity for women with existing expertise to receive updates on key topics and contribute to important discussions about accessing changes and campaigning for reforms.

Speakers and workshop leaders include:

• Lord Lester, QC
• Shaminder Ubhi, Director of Ashiana
• Yasmin Rehman, Director of Partnerships and Diversity, Violent Crime Directorate, Metropolitan Police Service
• Marai Larasi, Executive Director, nia project and Vice Chair of the Women's Aid Federation of England
• Heather Harvey, Amnesty International UK
• Tania Pouwhare, Women's Resource Centre
• Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters
• Alison Stanley, Partner Bindmans Solicitors
• Jasvinder Sanghera, Karma Nirvana
• Khatun Sapnara, Barrister and Chair of Ashiana
• Anne Marie Hutchinson OBE, Partner, Dawson Cornwell Solicitors and Chair of Reunite

For further details please contact Rights of Women

• Website: http://www.row.org.uk/pdfs/conf2007/conf-flyer.pdf;
• Email: conference@row.org.uk;
• Telphone: 020 7251 6575/6;
• Textphone: 020 7490 2562;
• Fax: 020 7490 5377