‘Rights of Women’ is an organization that campaigns for women’s rights in the UK. They want to teach women about their legal rights to promote equality and justice. Founded in 1975, it is a voluntary organization offering free confidential legal advice, training, guidance for policy makers and publications on women’s rights in the UK.

The Advice Line

‘Rights of Women’ offers a free, confidential advice line that looks at:

• Family law – including domestic violence, civil partnership and divorce termination, issues concerning parenting (parental responsibility, residence and child contact for example), and relationship breakdown.
• Criminal law – including sexual violations (assault and rape), reporting sexual offences to the police, the rights of witnesses, defendants and victims, domestic violence and harassment, and criminal injury compensation.
• Immigration and asylum law – including the rights of EEA nationals and their family members, trafficking, no recourse to public funds, claiming asylum in the UK and domestic violence and immigration law.

These are some of the main women’s rights UK issues.

Training and Events

‘Rights of Women’ also offers training on essential issues relating to women’s rights in the UK. These include:

• No recourse? EEA national? The permanent solution – this course looks at the rights of women who are not from the UK and who are experiencing domestic violence. It is a free course for women only.
• Getting the Basics: an introduction to family law – this course looks firstly at the law on divorce and financial assistance during the process of divorce, and then looks at issues relating to children. It also discusses how women can get protection from domestic violence. This, too, is a women only course.
• Protecting children from domestic violence: children and the law. This course looks at parental responsibility and how local authorities become involved in case of domestic abuse where children are present. Again, this is a women only course.

Resources

Many resources on women’s rights in the UK are available through ‘Rights of Women’, as they actively seek to influence policy based on excellent research.

Publications

‘Rights of Women’ has an extensive list of publications on women’s rights UK. These include:

• From A to Z: a woman’s guide to the law
• Rights of women child contact handbook
• Domestic violence DIY injunction handbook

Membership

You can join ‘Rights of Women’ if you are a woman or organization that works for women or women’s rights UK. Membership includes:

• A biannual newsletter
• A tri-annual policy newsletter, which shows updates on policies and laws that affect women
• A 10% discount on training, events and publications
• Invitations to events and the Annual General Meeting

As Rights of Women is a voluntary organization, they rely on the support of their members to be able to continue their very important work. Although ‘Rights of Women’ cannot represent a woman in court, they will work hard for women’s rights in the UK by ensuring that women are advised on what their rights are, where they can get help specific to their situation and by ensuring that women’s rights are entered into policies and laws.