The Women’s Night Safety Charter has been created by the Mayor of London to make London a city where all women feel confident and welcome at night and is part of the Mayor’s Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and London’s commitment to the UN Women Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces global initiative.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jane Harrington signed the charter to signal the universities commitment to women’s safety and said,
‘The seven pledges we have made by joining the charter show our commitment to making our campuses safe places for everyone, particularly at night. I’m really excited to see how we can collaborate together across academic departments and with our professional services colleagues to work on these pledges.
‘Everyone has the right to feel safe, and at Greenwich we are well placed to take meaningful action. Signing up to the charter clearly indicates our determination to do so.’
The seven pledges set out in the charter are as follows;
- Nominate a champion in your organisation who actively promotes women’s night safety
- Demonstrate to staff and customers that your organisation takes women’s safety at night seriously, for example through a communications campaign
- Remind customers and staff that London is safe, but tell them what to do if they experience harassment when working, going out or travelling
- Encourage reporting by victims and bystanders as part of your communications campaign
- Train staff to ensure that all women who report are believed
- Train staff to ensure that all reports are recorded and responded to
- Design your public spaces and work places to make them safer for women at night
Rosie Fean, Change Manager and Chair of Women’s Network at the University of Greenwich said,
‘Violence against women and girls is not inevitable, there is concrete action that can be taken to end it and to prevent it, and everyone has a role to play. The Women's Staff Network are delighted that the University of Greenwich and Greenwich Students’ Union are working together to prioritise women’s safety on our campuses by signing this charter.’
