Sisters Uncut holds vigil for teenage victims of domestic violence in Parliament Square

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Sisters Uncut marked World Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday evening by staging a vigil outside Parliament for teenage victims of domestic abuse.

Almost half (49 per cent) of teenage relationships are violent or controlling, according to data cited by campaigners, who said domestic violence now affects a larger portion of 16 to 19-year-olds than any other age group.

Faustine Petron, founder of sex education campaign group Make It Mandatory, said: “Successive governments have stood idly by while young people suffer on a massive scale and while our daughters, sisters and loved ones continue to be abused and killed by men.

“Young people deserve safe, bright and abuse-free futures with well-funded domestic abuse support services.”

She added that prevention and education were “fundamental” in building this guarantee.

Sisters Uncut said that existing PSHE (personal, social, health and economic) education was “not fit for purpose,” due to it not being led by specialists and because it ends too early — usually at the age of 16.

And there are too few specialist domestic violence services for teenagers, with existing ones “oversubscribed, underfunded.”

Activists demanded “ring-fenced” funding for these services across the country, alongside “trauma-informed, police-free responses that do not criminalise young people” and obligatory “trans-inclusive, intersectional feminist sex education in all schools” until the age of 18.

Thursday’s vigil followed the first recorded instance of a suicide linked to domestic abuse involving two people under the age of 18 earlier this year.

The Sisters Uncut protest was joined by campaigners from other groups including No More Exclusions, Women against Rape, United Voices of the World and the English Collective of Prostitutes.

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