Westminster City Council – Homepage

It's Her City Too

A headline saying, It's Her City Too. The subheading asks to help end sexual harassment.

It's Her City Too

There is no place for sexual harassment in Westminster. We do not tolerate any form of sexual harassment on our streets or in our venues.

Sexual harassment includes lots of different behaviours, such as:

  • wolf-whistling and catcalling
  • sexual gestures
  • staring
  • making unwanted sexual advances
  • stalking or deliberately walking closely behind someone
  • making comments on a person's appearance or body
  • driving or riding a vehicle slowly near someone

It’s behaviour that is intended to cause harassment, alarm, or distress to another person.

We are asking everyone to safely challenge, intervene or report when they witness sexual harassment in our city. By working together, you can help us end sexual harassment in Westminster.

 

How you can help

We must all play our part in stopping sexual harassment by choosing not to ignore it and taking responsibility for everyone's safety. Here’s the top five things you can do to help us to end sexual harassment in Westminster, together:

1. Call it out

Before calling out any challenging behaviour, make sure it is safe for you to do so. By becoming an active bystander and intervening, you are helping to support potential victims and are being proactive in helping to end sexual harassment against women.

Calling it out, doesn’t always need to be a direct intervention with a potential offender. It can take the form of a distraction to help remove the victim from the situation. It could be alerting a member of staff in the venue you are in and asking them for help. Or it could be waiting for a dangerous situation to pass and asking the victim if they are okay and how you can support them.

2. Call the Police or Crimestoppers

If you experience or witness sexual harassment, please report it:

  • In an emergency, always dial 999
  • Or alternatively contact 101 for the Police in a non-emergency
  • You can report online

If you have information related to an incident you can give information, with a guarantee of anonymity through CrimeStoppers by calling 0800 555 111

For more information on Reporting harassment and getting support

3. Become a Night Star

Night Stars are a team of volunteers that help anyone who may find themselves in a vulnerable situation, needing a helping hand. Our Night Star volunteers are focused on working with the West End’s evening and night-time economy businesses to promote women’s safety and reduce violence against women and girls. Find out more about becoming a Night Star.

4. Businesses and venues get involved

We know that there are businesses and venues that want to be involved in making the city safer for those visiting Westminster at night. Work in partnership with us to help stop sexual harassment in your venues and in our city, by participating in our night safety programme. Find out more how you can train your staff and become accredited to help us improve women's safety at night.

5. Pledge to help

We want you to feel empowered to make changes and set goals to put into action to help end sexual harassment. The Suzy Lamplugh Trust offers free one hour training sessions on Bystander Intervention to anyone who wishes to help. The training enables anyone who witnesses any form of sexual harassment to support the victim and provides guidance on the most practical ways for you to intervene.

Also engage with us on Instagram and Facebook to share your ideas on how you pledge to act in helping us to end sexual harassment.

Thank you for playing your part.