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Year: 2020

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A Recap: Talk series with IRB Law on domestic violence and divorce

Written by Mahi Nair, AWARE intern

On 17, 19 and 22 June, AWARE hosted a series of online talks in collaboration with IRB Law, a Singapore-based law firm. IRB Law provides legal services and guidance across a broad range of issues, specialising in divorce, and is currently the largest Syariah law practice in Singapore. Over Zoom, the speakers—practicing IRB lawyers—gave presentations and answered questions on domestic violence and divorce.

The subject matter could not have been timelier during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many families and couples, being forced to stay at home for prolonged periods of time with one another has led to increasing tension and stress, culminating in violence and/or divorce. AWARE has received record numbers of Helpline calls relating to family violence—with a 137% increase (adjusted) in May 2020 over family violence calls from May 2019— while some law firms also reported an increase in divorce-related enquiries during the circuit breaker.

 

IRB Law speaker Ameera Bajrai (bottom right) explaining the civil divorce process on 19 June 2020

 

The IRB Law talks series aimed to support individuals facing domestic issues who might have few avenues for help due to financial issues or a troubled marital situation. The events provided a safe space for these individuals to learn about their legal rights and possible solutions to domestic issues, and obtain accurate, thorough legal advice free of cost.

The first session, on 17 June, was entitled “Domestic Violence and your Legal Rights”. Speakers Muntaz Zainuddin and Nur Izyan provided an overview of domestic violence in Singapore, highlighting the issues that arise as a result of quarantine during COVID, and possible legal remedies. These legal actions include applying for a PPO (personal protection order), EO (expedited order) or a DEO (domestic exclusion order). The speakers also covered what one could do when faced with violence or harassment at the hands of non-family members—such as an intimate partner, friend or even a neighbour—via POHA (Protection From Harassment Act).

The second session on 19 June, about civil divorce, was led by speakers Ameera Bajrai and Nureliza Syahidain, and covered the basic procedures of filing for divorce in Singapore. The lawyers informed audience members that anybody who has stayed in Singapore for at least three years, and been married for at least three years, can file for a divorce. Some potential grounds for divorce include unreasonable behaviour (such as your spouse inflicting physical or mental abuse or harm and behaving in any way you cannot reasonably live with), separation, adultery and desertion.

The third session, on 22 June, covered Syariah divorce, with speakers Norhakim Shah, Amalina Saparin and Abdul Aziz. The process of Syariah divorce is different from civil divorce: For example, unlike civil divorce, a couple doesn’t have to be married for a minimum of three years before filing for Syariah divorce. Under Syariah law, a marriage can be dissolved by the pronouncement of talaq by the husband in court. Women, on the other hand, can use the grounds of khuluk (divorce by redemption or compensation), taklik (a breach of marriage terms) and fasakh (marriage annulment) to file for divorce. Additionally, the speakers emphasised that the welfare of any children is of utmost priority during both civil and Syariah divorce proceedings.

Each presentation was followed by a lively and engaging Q&A session where the speakers answered questions about various issues, such as custody, grounds for divorce and court order variations. The lawyers also provided more detailed answers regarding various legal proceedings.

Finally, feedback from attendees was collected, with most attendees sharing that they found the sessions to be very informative and helpful—a much-needed avenue for individuals to learn about their legal rights and processes.

One attendee praised the “willingness of the speakers to engage and help participants gain deeper insight to the topic”.

Another commented: “The speakers were well-informed about this topic, and were able to share advice and points from their personal experiences of such cases that may not have been thought of.”

With an average of 98 attendees per session, the IRB Law Talk series saw participants from many walks of life. While many were individuals seeking advice for their personal contexts, a number of social workers were also in attendance to learn more about domestic violence and divorce legal procedures.

The impact of COVID-19 on self-employed persons in Singapore

Self-employed persons (SEPs) in Singapore suffered an average 60% loss in income during the COVID-19 circuit breaker, AWARE has found in a new survey.

While 60% of our 25 respondents managed to receive COVID-related government financial assistance, many encountered difficulties applying to SIRS (self-employed person income relief scheme).

How can we better help these workers? Based on our research, we recommend that the government:

a) Allow LTVP/+ holders to be officially self-employed
b) Make SIRS more inclusive and accessible, in various ways
c) Recognise (paid) labour performed in informal economies as self-employed work
d) Reduce barriers for SEPs to be eligible for all applicable schemes.

View our detailed survey findings below.

25 July 2020: Consent – do you get it? Young Singaporeans’ perceptions of sexual consent

After months of social distancing, you and your partner finally meet up. You both want to have sex. After getting undressed, however, your partner expresses second thoughts about proceeding.

Do you:

A. Urge them to continue, since you’ve already started

B. Stop, even though you’d like to continue?

If you picked (A), you may not have obtained consent from your sex partner.

Consent can be more complex than we think. It’s hard to boil down to pithy epithets like “no means no”, or even “yes means yes”. Considering variables like a power differential, practices like “stealthing” or the sending of nudes, or mid-act changes of heart, a standard negotiation playbook doesn’t quite cut it.

In a new survey AWARE conducted with Ngee Ann Polytechnic, we asked 539 young adults, from 17 to 25, to share their perspectives on consent and their personal experiences with it. The results were encouraging: Many young people appear to have a strong general understanding of consent, and a desire to have more open conversations about it. Yet certain scenarios proved more difficult for our respondents to navigate.

At this event, we’ll roll up our sleeves and dive deep into the nebulous nature of consent, by talking through our survey findings (including various tricky hypothetical situations) with a panel of experts, then breaking off into small-group discussions. Together, we’ll work towards understanding a comprehensive definition of consent, put to rest some harmful myths and ensure that our decision-making in the bedroom is informed by empathy and respect. Join us on Saturday, 25 July, on Zoom from 2-3.30pm.

This event is pay-what-you-can. Suggested donation of $5 per head. All proceeds will go to AWARE’s Vulnerable Women’s Fund to help grow our services as much as possible during this period. Visit the campaign here.

Event Schedule

  1. Presentation of survey findings
  2. A panel discussion, moderated by AWARE’s Head of Advocacy and Research, Shailey Hingorani
  3. Facilitated small group discussions

Register here!

Our panellists

Carissa Cheow

Carissa is currently reading her Master’s in Public Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. A political theorist by training and community organiser by circumstantial necessity, she serves as the co-founding Co-President of Students for a Safer NUS, a community organization tackling sexual violence, and co-founding Advisor to transNUS, a ground-up collective of trans and nonbinary students, staff and alumni in her university. Her research interests range from the politics of de-alienation to interpersonal and intrapersonal politics. She is also currently working on her first collection of poems, titled you need a very small space to read these poems.

Lee Yi Ting

Yi Ting taught in JCs for five years, and was a Ministry of Education-trained sexuality education facilitator. She currently works in the areas of gender justice and sexual rights. She is a facilitator for AWARE’s Birds & Bees workshop series, which helps parents have important conversations with their children about sex in a non-judgmental way.

Priscilla Chia

Priscilla is a lawyer in private practice. Priscilla’s practice focuses on commercial, public interest and criminal litigation. Outside of her legal practice, Priscilla is actively involved in and invests her time in non-profit and public interest work.

 

21 July 2020: Good boys, softbois, sammyboys, boys will be boys – learning and unlearning toxic masculinity

Misogyny running rampant on popular podcasts. Doctors undermining their oath to do no harm. Underwear thieves and sexual voyeurs lurking in toilets and MRT stations. Looking at the news today, you’d be forgiven for asking: Do we need to urgently detoxify masculinity in Singapore?

We are socialised into gender roles at a very young age. Unfortunately, the idea of masculinity has come to be inextricable from violence, sexual conquest, status and aggression. Culture tells us time and again that being a man is to be strong and dominant above all else; on the other hand, traits like emotional vulnerability are “feminine” and signs of weakness. These rigid ideas punish everyone across the gender spectrum.

So: What should it mean to be a man today?

A more equal world is only possible if men critically reflect on imbalances of power and gender inequitable norms. We need men to engage with other men: to challenge harmful norms and sexist beliefs, to become allies within their families, workplaces and communities. The fight for gender equality has to be shouldered by men as well – after all, they have much to gain from it.

Undoing a lifetime’s worth of lessons about how to “be a man” is not an easy task, but it can start with open discussion. Join us for a panel with and about male feminist allies, moderated by AWARE’s Head of Research and Advocacy, Shailey Hingorani. We’ll listen to their experiences dismantling traditional gender roles and behaviors, unlearning harmful stereotypes, and examining conscious and unconscious behaviours that perpetuate misogyny.

Suggested donation of $5.

Register here!

Our speakers

Kristian-Marc James is a proud member of SG Climate Rally and helped to organise last year’s rally. He has appeared in New Naratif, The Straits Times and Channel NewsAsia on behalf of SGCR, as one of the organisation’s press representatives. He was also recently part of The Substation’s residency programme, the Concerned Citizens Programme, where he explored minority-race Singaporean masculinity through art and closed-door dialogues. He graduated from Yale-NUS College last year, majoring in Anthropology, and will be pursuing a master’s in Gender Studies either this year or next (depending on COVID!). Currently, Kristian works as a Diversity and Inclusion Programme Coordinator at a global software corporation.

Keeshan Menon (Shan) is a registered social worker with a master’s in Social Work and Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology. He is currently employed as a social worker in a local youth agency where part of his job involves sexuality education for young men. Since 2010, Shan has also been involved in work with vulnerable minority groups, especially the LGBTQ+. He has been involved in multiple international conferences representing Singapore as a transgender activist, and has conducted gender sensitivity workshops for various organisations in Singapore. His volunteer work with The T Project began in 2017 with the development of the trans empowerment workshops for vulnerable transgender women (sponsored by AWARE’s Power Fund). in 2019, Shan helped set up Alicia Community Centre’s transgender counselling service.

Tan Wah Kiat is a male member and proud supporter of AWARE since 2005. Convinced that men are part of the gender equity equation, he took on the role of Chairperson for White Ribbon Campaign in 2006, to promote awareness among men of anti-violence against women. As a self-confessed ex-jock PE teacher and typical alpha-male rugby player, Kiat used to be guilty of exhibiting stereotypical gendered dispositions and behaviours. He delved into gender studies as he wanted to “encourage girls to be more active in PE” – then realised that he himself was part of the problem. Working in a mostly male-dominated environment for 22 years, Kiat practices what he preaches by promoting gender equity in his classroom, which today is in an international school in China. He hopes to educate and influence his students to be more aware of their words and deeds and treat each other with respect.

Position Filled: First Responder Fellowship, Sexual Assault Care Centre

We are no longer accepting applicants for this role.

AWARE’s Sexual Assault Care Centre (SACC) is looking for a First Responder Fellow. This Fellowship is an opportunity for individuals keen on joining the movement to promote zero tolerance to sexual violence in Singapore. You will serve as a first responder to survivors who reach out to SACC, which is currently the only centre in Singapore that provides gender- and trauma-informed services to sexual assault survivors.

This Fellowship aims to cultivate the knowledge, skills and mindsets necessary to tackle and respond to sexual violence, such that Fellows become advocates for change as they venture further into social service work or related sectors. The Fellows receive specialised mentorship and training in trauma-informed skills, while supporting youth, adults and families coping with the impact of sexual violence. Fellows develop core competencies designed to foster their professional development into the social service sector through:

  • Content and classroom learning
  • Shadowing and on-the-job training opportunities
  • Exposure through community engagement opportunities, events, and other programmes; and
  • Supervision, on the ground technical support, guidance and emotional support by the Programme manager.

A significant part of the role would also involve carrying out administrative duties to provide operational support for the day-to-day running of various services at SACC. These duties include documentation/report writing, data management, ad-hoc projects, etc.

In addition to first response, the Fellow will also get exposure to community engagement opportunities as part of the Fellowship.

Professionals seeking a mid-career break or change, who have a keen interest in the social service sector, are highly encouraged to apply. If you have several years of experience in the social service sector, the Fellowship offers you a space to diversify your client profile and issue-area you want to work with. For those with years of experience in the private sector, this can serve as an opportunity to network and dip your toe in the public sector to assess if you want to make that move. We encourage applicants to prioritise the exposure and learning opportunities through this fellowship/entry-level position.

Position: SACC Fellow
Department: CARE – SACC
Commitment: Full-time, Monday – Friday
Stipend for Fellow: $1,500 per month
Term: One year
Starting date: Immediately
Application deadline: 25 July 2020

Role

  • Ensuring high quality and timely response to people reaching out to SACC through calls, WhatsApp, emails, walk-ins, referrals and other platforms
  • Scheduling clients with case managers, counsellors, etc. via phone, emails and/or face-to-face
  • Assisting senior case managers in case coordination and documentation
  • Creating various project reports as well as supporting incoming client queries
  • Documenting and filing confidential notes, intake forms, etc.
  • Establishing processes for client feedback and ensuring prompt submission to relevant parties/systems
  • Identifying and improving current processes
  • Supporting staff and volunteers on various projects and ad-hoc programmes as required
  • Providing administrative and operational support to SACC

Who we are looking for

  • Relevant educational qualification like a diploma or a degree in social work, counselling, psychology or a related field (preferable)
  • Professionals seeking a mid-career break and have a keen interest in joining the social service sector are highly encouraged to join the Fellowship
  • Training on trauma is a bonus
  • In addition to passion and commitment to AWARE’s mission and vision, we look for Fellows who demonstrate the following:
    • Excellent interpersonal, empathy and communication skills in English (verbal and written).
    • Good analytical skills and commitment to confidentiality
    • Superb organisational and time management skills
    • Ability to meet deadlines in a high-paced environment while balancing workload and competing priorities
    • Strong project planning and highly creative, adaptable and a self starter
    • Ability to use initiative and judgment to solve problems independently
    • Experience or interest in supporting or empowering individuals
    • Strong belief in gender equality and the values of AWARE
    • Computer savvy, proficient in MS Office, especially Excel and Word

Read our privacy policy here.

Please note that due to the large number of applications, only shortlisted applicants will be contacted for an interview. If you have any questions about this position, please email careers@aware.org.sg.

GE2020: What being a first-time voter means to me

by an AWARE intern, age 24

“Nothing’s going to change anyway, so why bother?”

That was my overall approach to Singaporean politics for a lot of my life. Though my training as a History undergraduate made it second nature for me to question the status quo, it never struck me that I could make any tangible change as a citizen. Being raised in a politically apathetic family, too, left me clueless about my options—like, were there even options?

It was not until recently, when an onslaught of election-related memes and infographics appeared on my Instagram feed, that I’ve felt empowered to join the conversations about our parliamentary representation. Belonging to a female, Indian minority, I now feel the urgency of exercising my political rights more than ever.

The Gen Zs are finally eligible to vote, the online playing field has made the upcoming elections unpredictable and exciting, and I am living for it.

How the internet has changed the game

Social media has been pivotal in directing me to resources that have helped me understand the stakes of this election. I find that reading the manifestos of each party is a good place to start.

This election, I’ve witnessed vibrant debate about the nature of a democratic society because of the space that the internet has given us. Now that the social media generation has entered the chat, we have more opportunities to access and engage with alternative voices. Because of this, I feel an immense responsibility as a citizen to look outside my comfort zone (beyond simple “vote for the economy” rhetoric) and think about how to best combat the inequalities around me.

Living in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially, has brought many vulnerable communities to light for me. Examples of disturbing inequalities include the lack of protections and rights accorded to migrant spouses and migrant domestic workers, the drastic rise in cases of domestic violence, discriminatory policies against the LGBTQAI communities and single mothers, continued reports of sexual violence, and more. I want the policies proposed by representatives of my constituency to reflect a sense of urgency in tackling these issues.

Instagram has been a treasure trove of information about Singaporean politics

Representation and diversity

In this General Election, the importance of a more gender-equal parliament has been a point of discussion. Although women remain a minority in Singapore politics, efforts to tackle gender-based discrimination are increasingly prevalent in the manifestos of political parties this GE.

I believe there is a need for female leaders familiar with vulnerable communities, like the ones mentioned above, to be part of our country’s decision-making processes. I think that will help us lessen the effects of COVID-19 on women more effectively. Across the world, there’s an emerging consensus that although coronavirus is much more fatal to men than women, it’s women who are more susceptible to COVID-19’s social and economic toll. In addition to the rise in domestic violence, the increasing burden of family care is another example of the pandemic’s disproportionate penalties for women.

Some of the female newcomers I find promising are:

  • Workers’ Party’s Raeesah Khan, an activist and founder of Reyna Movement, an organisation which aims to empower marginalised women and children
  • Red Dot United’s Liyana Dhamirah, who authored a book about homelessness and is the founder of Virtual Assistance Singapore, a company that provides administrative support to businesses
  • People’s Action Party’s Carrie Tan, the executive director of Daughters of Tomorrow, a charity that helps low-income women.

These are competent and diverse women who have a background in civil activism, and the propensity to push for more inclusive, less discriminatory policies in support of vulnerable women. There is definitely more space for progress, but this is a start, and I would like the chance to see what these women bring to the table.

The importance of differing perspectives

While progressive ideas are being shared on Instagram Story after Instagram Story, on the other side of the spectrum, I’ve seen criticism of youth “voting the opposition for the sake of it.” Such claims feel disempowering and dismissive of young people’s efforts to participate in democracy.

This division is most evident now in the online response to the investigation of Workers’ Party candidate Raeesah Khan for comments that allegedly promote enmity between different racial and religious groups. My news feed is split between youths who are angry that a minority woman risks losing her candidacy, and others who believe that Raeesah’s comments did cross a line. Either way, social media has provided me the space to discuss the nuances of systemic racism, and I hope that Parliament will be a similarly open ground for debate and disagreement.

This coming election, I will be voting for the changes that I want to see in this country. To quote Angela Davis, “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.”

AWARE does not engage in partisan politics or endorse any political party in Singapore. 

Gender in Singapore advertising: a study by AWARE and R3

Compelling, effective advertising must reflect certain realities about our lives. Yet in promising to reflect reality, our ads end up shaping reality, too—their norms become our norms; their boundaries map our imaginations. 

In the context of gender, this means that we want ads that i) acknowledge the complex set of obstacles women face in the world, and/or ii) depict women overcoming those obstacles and succeeding. Are ads in Singapore succeeding in either of those tasks?

EXAMINING 200 TELEVISION ADS

Gender-equality organisation AWARE and marketing consultancy R3 Worldwide embarked on a project to examine gender portrayal in Singapore commercials. We looked at 200 television advertisements produced by Singapore’s top 100 advertisers, spanning a range of industries including telecommunications, financial services, beauty and government. The ads were all broadcast in Singapore between 2018 and 2020.

Besides observing overall trends, we drew up a shortlist of ads we found to be exemplars for gender equality. While guidelines on gender portrayal have been published for advertisers in other countries (e.g. by the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK), there has been no such endeavour in Singapore. We therefore hoped our list would give local advertisers a nudge to think more critically about their own depictions of gender. 

QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT: REPRESENTATION BY THE NUMBERS

First, to get a quantitative measure of representation, we tallied men and women in lead and supporting parts across the 200 ads to derive a ratio of male to female characters.

On both counts, men outnumbered women. The ads featured 23% more male lead characters (179 to 146), and 8% more male supporting characters (328 to 304), than female.

QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT: GENDER ROLES

Next, we listed out some common roles relating to gender and power, and tallied the number of ads that featured i) male and ii) female embodiments of those roles. These included:

  • Working characters

We found that ads were 48% more likely to depict men (62 ads) than women (42 ads) as having paid employment of some sort.

  • Characters performing domestic work

Ads were almost six times more likely to depict women (23 ads) performing some sort of domestic work (e.g. cleaning, cooking or childcare) than men (4 ads).

  • Expert/novice characters

More than twice as many ads depicted men (35 ads) providing knowledge in our ads—e.g. teaching others or answering questions—than women (14 ads). This was despite the fact that ads depicted men and women receiving such knowledge at around the same rate.

  • Saviour/saved characters

Similarly, more than twice as many ads depicted men in heroic, rescuer roles (e.g. repairing objects for others, assisting the injured) than women (13 ads to 6 ads). These roles were often driven home by such stylistic conventions as swelling, romantic music. Meanwhile, the reverse was true for ads depicting characters in distress, requiring rescue: 13 ads featured women, and 6 ads featured men, in that role.

QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT

Moving on to individual ad evaluations, we scored each ad on how it treated gender stereotypes in behaviours and characteristics, and how it portrayed body image (in size, hair, skin and other attributes). For this portion, we invited a panel of top local advertising professionals—from companies such as VMLY&R, Wunderman Thompson, DBS, Prodigious and Marina Bay Sands—to participate in the assessment to get a broader view.

STEREOTYPES IN BEHAVIOURS AND CHARACTERISTICS

We awarded high marks for ads that actively broke stereotypes, and low marks for ads that reinforced them. Examples of stereotypes included “women are emotional and men are rational” and “women are absorbed in appearances and other superficial concerns”.

High scorers in this category included:

  • Singtel’s “In Return: Interview with Shaza Ishak”: which stars a driven young woman who runs the Malay theatre company Teater Ekamatra. We witness her passion and ambition to bring minority voices to the stage, while her supportive father cooks a meal for her at home.
  • Vaseline’s “Visible Scars, Invisible Strength”: The ad features 71-year-old Lee Hwee Chin, who overcame gender discrimination in her 40-year career as a blade-sharpener. Her scarred hands represent not disfigurement, but her professional “achievement”. 

Low scorers in this category included an ad in which a sternly patronising father explains mobile banking to his ditzy, vain daughter; an ad in which a frazzled housewife flies off the handle when her husband forgets to put the toilet seat down; and an ad that upholds conventionally gendered divisions of labour—with a mother baking tarts for her daughter while a father writes a cheque for his son.

BODY IMAGE AND BEAUTY STANDARDS

In scoring this, we asked: Does this ad foster a progressive and diverse idea of beauty by recognising the attractiveness of people who fall outside of society’s narrow physical ideals? Or does it instead shame these people for their looks?

High scorers in this category included:

  • Dove’s “Rachel’s Story”: in which a woman with eczema talks openly about learning to be proud of her skin, after years of disparagement from others: “I look at every mark on my body as… a point where I’ve gotten through the pain and I’ve come out stronger.”
  • Apple’s “Behind the Mac”: a simple, powerful montage of well-known female artists and leaders, from Lady Gaga to Malala Yousafzai, who all look distinctively radiant in their own skin. 
  • Singtel’s “GOMO feat. Preetipls”: With Preetipls, a body-positive local entertainer, doing sultry beach yoga à la Instagram influencers and comically sporting a fake unibrow, the ad challenges ideas of who is allowed wit and glamour in media.

That said, the vast majority of ads did feature slim, fair-skinned and pretty women. These conventionally “beautiful” women were sometimes coupled with schlubby men, in a display of gendered double standards. Indeed, women across the ads were much more likely than men to adhere to traditional beauty standards.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Lastly, ads were penalised if they featured violence against women and/or objectification of women’s bodies. However, few ads in our set lost points here.

 

TOP 10 SCORING ADS 
Rank      Brand            Advertisement 
1 Vaseline Visible Scars, Invisible Strength: Lady without Fingerprints
2 Apple Chinese New Year | Shot on iPhone 11 Pro — Daughter
3 Apple Behind The Mac — International Women’s Day
4 Singtel In Return: Interview with Shaza Ishak
5 Singtel GOMO feat. Preetipls
6 FWD Cancer Insurance – My Girlfriend’s Such a Fighter
7 Starhub Founding Mothers of Singapore
8 UOB Black Belt
9 Dove Rachel’s Story: Living with eczema
10 McDonald’s       McDelivery Day

 

Download the report as a PDF here.

Special thanks to Lee Yi Ting and Saraniyah Saravanan for their work on this project.

ABOUT AWARE

AWARE is Singapore’s leading women’s rights and gender-equality advocacy group. It works to identify and eliminate gender-based barriers through research, advocacy, education, training and support services. AWARE embraces diversity, respects the individual and the choices she makes in life, and supports her when needed. aware.org.sg

ABOUT R3

R3 Worldwide is the only truly global consultancy that offers marketers access to the expertise and services required to establish and administer effective multi-national agency engagements. R3 is the most experienced organisation of its kind with on-the-ground consultants and in-market insights in major markets around the globe. Its objective counsel guides marketers and their agencies towards more effective and efficient working relationships. rthree.com

COVID-19 and the increase of domestic violence against women: OHCHR submission by AWARE

On 30 June 2020, AWARE made a submission to the the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women. Our submission focused on COVID-19 and the increase of domestic violence against women.

Compared to the same period last year, the AWARE Women’s Helpline has received a 65%, 119%, and 137% increase in the number of family violence calls in March, April and May 2020 respectively.

Our submission highlighted the barriers that women in Singapore face in accessing support and justice during the pandemic—including a limit on court cases heard and a poor public understanding of domestic violence and intervention methods.

Our report also drew attention to the particular vulnerability of migrant spouses, domestic workers and LGTBQ+ persons to domestic violence.

Questions the report addresses

  • To what extent has there been an increase of violence against women, especially domestic violence in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns? Please provide all available data on the increase of violence against women, including domestic violence and femicides, registered during the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Are helplines run by Government and/or civil society available? Has there been an increase in the number of calls in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic?
  • Are shelters open and available? Are there any alternatives to shelters available if they are closed or without sufficient capacity?
  • Are protection orders available and accessible in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic?
  • What are the impacts on women’s access to justice? Are courts open and providing protection and decisions in cases of domestic violence?
  • Please provide examples of obstacles encountered to prevent and combat domestic violence during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

 

Read our full OHCHR report here.

29 July 2020: Sexual Assault First Responder Training (Online)

“Are you sure that happened? Why didn’t you fight back? You should have known better.” These are some common responses survivors of sexual assault have heard, which may further their feelings of doubt, guilt and shame.

First response that is sensitive to the survivor’s needs and choices is necessary in preventing re-victimisation. We may not always know the right words to say, but we can all agree that sexual assault should never happen to anyone.

One way to show zero tolerance for sexual assault is through our own words and actions. It is not always easy for survivors to tell someone about what happened. In fact, for some survivors, it can be especially daunting.

As an individual that they put their trust in, our response becomes pivotal in their journey of recovery. SACC’s First Responder Training helps familiarize participants with trauma reactions and symptoms to better contribute to a survivor’s well-being. In this workshop, SACC will share more on the following:

1. Definition of sexual assault and harassment

2. Recognising Singapore’s legal framework

3. Understanding consent

4. Understanding the impact of sexual assault and trauma on survivors

5. Role of a first responder

6. Providing support to survivors of sexual assault

7. Resources available for help

8. Key skills such as ensuring safety, active listening and empathy

Under AWARE’s #AimForZeroSG campaign, this popular workshop has been made affordable to all. While you are welcome to pay what you can, we suggest a sum of $10 per workshop attendee. Please note that all proceeds to towards SACC and that the donation made towards the workshop is non-refundable.

Persons of all genders and nationalities are more than welcome to attend.

We strongly request that all participants commit to the full duration of the 5.5-hour workshop (there are breaks!) to ensure that everyone will get the opportunity to engage in interactive discussions and learn useful skills. This includes keeping your video ON and utilizing the audio to participate.

This event has sold out. For early notice about future editions, fill out this form.