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Initiatives & Campaigns demanding justice, protection & compensation |
The conviction rate for rape has fallen from one in three reported cases in 1977 to 5.7% in 2007. All survivors of sexual violence are up against entrenched institutional sexism from the legal, immigration and compensation authorities. We are disbelieved and treated disrespectfully throughout the legal process, including when:
- Evidence is not gathered or presented properly by the police or the Crown Prosecution Service – beginning with the woman’s statement to the police.
- Women are pressed to withdraw, or find their case was dropped.
- The victim never meets the person presenting her case;
- If the case ever reaches court the woman is put "on trial", and not defended by the prosecuting barrister;
- Rape cases are undermined by widespread sexism, racism and discrimination against women on the basis of occupation, sexual history, medical history or disability, nationality, immigration status, age, class, sexual orientation, relationship to the attacker, criminal record . . .
The myths and prejudices we face in rape trials and in the laws on sexual offences frame the treatment we get in every other sphere. Despite recent new legislation, our sexual history is still used to humiliate, demean and dismiss us, (see Sexual History below). Our ‘character and conduct’ can similarly be used to deny us compensation, discriminating against survivors who may have unrelated convictions for prostitution, shoplifting or possession of cannabis. Women continue to be divided into deserving or undeserving victims. Rape survivors seeking asylum face hostility and can be dismissed as ‘bogus’, see Asylum from Rape. And now, some victims are being prosecuted for 'perverting the course of justice'. See letter to the Attorney General protesting prosecutions of women who report rape and breach of their anonymity
Domestic Violence
n Asylum from rape
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Date rape
Sexual History & Belief in consent
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Demanding
compensation
Health services for rape
survivors
Domestic Violence
Politicians and legal authorities who have recently
declared that tackling domestic violence is a priority, rarely acknowledge
that domestic violence often includes rape and other sexual violence. Our
fact sheet puts together striking statistics about how common such violence
is, and how little is actually reported:
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One in four women (some claim one in three) has suffered domestic violence
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Almost half were forced by their partner to have sex
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One in seven of all married women are raped by their husbands
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Up to 98% of domestic violence is not reported to the police
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About 100 women are killed by a partner or ex-partner in Britain each year, or two every week.
'The family no one
could save' For 14 months,
Julia Pemberton told anyone who would listen that her husband was
going to kill her. When he finally forced his way into her home with a gun, she made a desperate 999 call. By the
time the police arrived she and her son
William were dead. Now her family want to know why no one took any notice.
Guardian
7June
2005
Jan 07
PRESS
RELEASE:
The homicide review into the deaths of Julia and William
Pemberton begins this week.
Fact Sheet
The
rapist who pays the rent
Landmark Domestic Violence Case Settled
$1million awarded to family of California woman shot dead by her husband -
18 calls to Sheriff's Dept never resulted in arrest
Unpublished letter to the Guardian, 27 Oct 2000, Beatrix Campbell
concludes "Men are the problem". But her own column, the new survey, and
everything we have known for years about domestic violence show that the
problem is first of all the police, the CPS, the courts, social services,
the DSS, and housing departments.
After a 15 year campaign by WAR marital rape is finally recognised by law
lords 1991
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Asylum from rape
Ms Janipher
Maseko released from detention!
But
many
women are still detained in inhumane conditions
Event: SEEKING ASYLUM a perilous journey - to safety? 10.30 - 4 Saturday Oct 6th 2007 (registration 10am)
Digby Stuart
College, Roehampton University,
Roehampton Lane, SW15
Women in Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre on hunger strike protesting against SERCO’s draconian regime Press your MP to sign EDM 406 Rape and female asylum seekers Ministers making asylum seekers destitute, say MPs, 30 March
Launch of
Misjudging Rape -
Breaching Gender Guidelines and International Law in Asylum
Appeals,
5 Dec
Please
help
reunite Jonathan with his mother
Why is Tony Blair sending this gang-rape victim back to her
attackers?
Sunday
Telegraph "Home Office does not believe rapes and beatings amount to persecution" says Green MEP Jean Lambert ------------------------------------------------------------------------
'I
couldn’t understand why I was being treated so badly and found that I
was always crying' Testimony
of a rape survivor seeking asylum who had used WAR's services, published
by NICE in a 2005 guideline to the NHS on post traumatic stress disorder
Women
have rights too
"The
Home Office still does not recognise rape as torture"
African
Times interviews BWRAP, Nov
2002
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Date Rape
Hidden behind media headlines of ‘date rape’, are women who struggle for justice after years of domestic violence, others who were raped as children by men in their family or in other positions of authority, and still others who were attacked by strangers they may have agreed to have a drink with. We are resisting every attempt to undermine women’s right to say No to any unwanted sex. In 1999, the government proposed to downgrade acquaintance rape - but an outcry from women prevented it. Date Rape Law Fury: Women outraged over date rape law A challenging 90-second cinema advert on date rape, which asks the viewer: "What are you doing?", launched at Warner Brothers Cinema Leicester Square. Winner of British Design and Art Direction Award in June 2000. Available on Video. Review of ad |
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Am I potential rapist? Damon Syson reacts to a confrontational cinema advert in The Guardian
Payday
response to Damon Syson |
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Sexual History & Belief in consent In rape trials, victims of rape have traditionally been questioned about their sexual history. Defence barristers ask the woman who she has slept with in order to trash her character in front of the jury. They imply that if you have slept with a lot of men, or if you have a reputation as a "loose woman", that you were more likely to have consented to sex with the accused. The Youth Justice & Criminal Evidence Act 1999 introduced some restrictions on such questioning. The Act could have protected the right to a fair trial of both the victim and the defendant. But ignoring the protests and lobbying of our grassroots women’s campaign the government pushed through a badly worded Act. Our Sexual History Campaign has consistently demanded that a principled distinction be made so that questioning about the woman’s relationship with the accused was allowed, but not her sexual history with any men she slept with on other occasions. The new law is a mess we predicted and appeals have been lodged. In order to divert attention from women’s basic demands, the government publicised how the Act prevents defendants representing themselves (which happened in a tiny percentage of cases, blown out of all proportion by screaming media headlines). Moreover, a man is still considered innocent of rape if he "believed" the woman consented, however unreasonably. Many men like to believe that women are always available to them; it’s the law’s job to disabuse them of this. Since it was introduced in 1976 this wording has been the vehicle for the defence barrister to focus on what was possibly in the man’s mind – his desires and assumptions that he was entitled to sex – rather than on what actually happened. The Act should have tackled "belief", but again, our concerns, raised in the parliamentary debate by a few MPs, were put down. The Sexual Offences Review reported to the Home Office in July 2000 proposing changes which would require men to take "all reasonable steps" to find out if a woman was consenting. In 2002, a 10-Minute Rule Bill by Julia Drown MP, proposes to amend the law in some of the ways we had lobbied for, for example, that a judge must warn the jury that consent to a man in the past does not imply consent on this occasion. But the Bill and the earlier Review fall short on "belief in consent". Julia Drown’s Bill says that the man’s belief in consent should be tested on what reasonable steps he took to find out whether the woman consented – this could be a useful modification, but it is not enough to prevent this appalling sexist abuse in court. We demand that Clause 2 of the Sexual Offences Act be deleted altogether. |
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Devious barristers and ignorant judges allow a woman’s sexual past to be disclosed in rape trials, The Times, 21 June 2006 Report of public meeting in House of CommonsOpen Letter to Jack Straw Jay faces row on change in rape evidence, The Times Sexism still part of anti-rape law, The Times Anti-sexist credibility, The Journal They said I asked for it, Bella magazine Rape victims may again face sex life questions, The Times, 18 May 2001 Sexual relations and the law, Guardian letter, 2 April 2001 Poem: I honestly believed it, Sir |
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Demanding
compensation
Throughout the legal process our sexual and
medical histories are often used to humiliate, demean and dismiss us. Our
'character and conduct' can similarly be used to deny us compensation, thus
discriminating against rape survivors who may have unrelated convictions for
prostitution, shop-lifting or possession of cannabis. Rape survivors
seeking asylum face hostility and can be dismissed as 'bogus'. While all
survivors experience sexism, those of us who are women of colour, immigrant,
refugee, older women and girls, sex workers, and women with disabilities or
on a low income often experience multiple discrimination.
Support
the campaign to end the time limit on suing your abuser
Letter to the Criminal Injuries
Compensation Authority protesting discrimination on the basis of a woman's
"character and conduct"
See also Winning
Compensation claims
12-year-old girl
raped by man is told she had consented
My
struggle for compensation for rape as a child
Smaller award
because CICA class woman as "mentally defective"
Women in civil
claim after car accident is cross examined about rape 17 years before
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Health services for rape survivors
A path-breaking seminar in brings together rape survivors and health professionals. Women Against Rape put together a video from the seminar of the testimonies of rape survivors about their attempts to get health treatments, and the responses of professionals. Report of seminar |
click on photo to see larger image & report
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30-minute video aimed at informing
and equipping health professionals to meet the needs of rape
survivors: Health services for rape survivors: an exploration |
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