Demanding Justice and protection from the Police and CPS

Plans to redefine domestic violence are disingenuous given the cuts to services that abused women need

Lisa Longstaff
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 December 2011 11.00 GMT
view this article on Guardian Comment is Free
 

Domestic violence must become a priority for policing and financial support.

 For info and to book tickets contact Slutwalklondon@gmail.com or visit them on Facebook

Motion F26 ‘Tackling Violence Against Women’, 19 September 2011

We are glad that the Liberal Democrats are highlighting some important issues that Women Against Rape has been working on for a number of years. These issues are: the rights of rape survivors seeking asylum; an end to the criminalisation of children in prostitution; an end to the prosecution of rape victims accused of making a false allegation; and an end to the imprisonment of women for non-violent offences.

Specifically, we urge Conference to support Section 2 of Motion F26: ‘Protecting victims’. 
[See Lib Dem Motion F26 on p30 of the Conference Agenda]

On Friday 1 July over 40 protestors gathered for a loud protest at the HQ of the Crown Prosecution Service in London. It was the first action of Slut Means Speak Up, the campaign that grew out of Slutwalk London, and was called jointly with Black Women’s Rape Action Project, the English Collective of Prostitutes and Women Against Rape. The key demands were to prosecute rapists and to stop their vindictive prosecutions of women. Specifically, the protest highlighted women sent to prison for so-called false allegations of rape, and to drop the prosecution of sex worker Sheila Farmer, who faces trial in September.

If the prosecution against DSK is dropped, the myth that women, not men, lie about rape will prevail once more

Katrin Axelsson
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 July 2011

This online version of the Self-Help Guide is a PDF file, to access it you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can download free from the internet.  

Click here to download the Self-Help Guide.

To order a paper copy, please send a cheque to 'Women Against Rape', PO Box 287, London NW6 5QU.
Prices: inidividuals £3; unfunded organisations £5; professionals or solidarity price £10. Free to women in prison.

This is a collective effort based on decades of experience of survivors and campaigners. It offers ways to tackle obstacles to justice you many face when reporting violence.

WAR will be taking part in the Slutwalk on Saturday in Trafalgar Square, London, and speaking at the rally.

In January, police officer Michael Sanguinetti told students at a Toronto Law School that "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimised." Thousands of women protested in the first Slutwalk in Toronto. Their manifesto said: "We are tired of being oppressed by slut-shaming; of being judged by our sexuality and feeling unsafe as a result. Being in charge of our sexual lives should not mean that we are opening ourselves to an expectation of violence, regardless if we participate in sex for pleasure or work. No one should equate enjoying sex with attracting sexual assault."

Ken Clarke's comments, were arrogant and ignorant. It took us 15 years of campaigning to get the law to recognise that rape in marriage is a crime, that sex without consent is rape whatever the relationship with the attacker. The injury and suffering that
result are not less just because you know your assailant. It was also outrageous of Clarke to mix up consenting sex between teenagers with rape.
The sentence for a supposed false allegation of rape is three or four years - more than the Justice Secretary appears to want now as the punishment for some rape.
Reducing the prison population is a laudable aim but why not cut sentences for non-violent offences? 70 per cent of prisoners are there for non-violent crimes. Over 60 per cent of women prisoners are mothers, the majority jailed for crimes of poverty such as petty theft or sex work.

Lisa Longstaff, spokeswoman for Women Against Rape