Women Against Rape

Last updated

Women Against Rape
AbbreviationWAR
Formation1976
Founded atLondon
Type NGO
Website womenagainstrape.net

Women Against Rape (WAR) is a UK organisation founded in 1976. In their original Statement of Aims, they demanded: recognition of rape of every kind; not just by strangers but by husbands, fathers and stepfathers. [1] They demanded that every woman must have the financial independence to escape rape and domestic violence. They said victims are entitled to compensation, along with victims of other violent crimes, from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (renamed Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority). They also said that all women should be entitled to justice, and not be "put on trial". WAR provides support for anyone fighting for justice in their own case, and that casework shapes its campaigns.

Contents

Campaigns

Rape in marriage

Starting in the mid-1970s WAR campaigned for rape in marriage to be made illegal. The first public event was a mock rape trial in Trafalgar Square in 1977, where women testified about violence they had suffered and who was responsible, including those in authority and employers. WAR initiated the slogan: "Yes means yes, No means, no. However we dress; wherever we go." The campaign took 15 years, with the law successfully amended in 1991. [2]

In 1995, WAR, with Legal Action for Women and the English Collective of Prostitutes, assisted two women to bring the first private prosecution for rape in England and Wales after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) refused to bring charges. [3] Using the same evidence the CPS had indicated was insufficient, a conviction was achieved, with a 14-year sentence imposed (later reduced to 11 years on appeal). [4] [5]

In 2015, Lesley Delmenico used the transcript of the trial as the basis of the play Pursuing Justice – Sex workers take their rapist to court. [6]

Criminal justice system

WAR has consistently criticised the authorities' treatment of rape victims. They publicise women's experiences of the police and court responses to rape, such as when they routinely accuse women of lying. They argue that police investigations have lost or neglected evidence, the CPS close too many cases, and prosecutors are less prepared and less robust than the defence. They call for those in authority who do not do their jobs properly to be held accountable: dismissed, and prosecuted where they break the law. [7]

Survivors seeking asylum

From 1991 to the present day, WAR has worked with Black Women's Rape Action Project [8] and Legal Action for Women [9] to provide services to, and campaign with, asylum seekers who had been raped, but are routinely disbelieved by the authorities in order to deny them safety and asylum in the UK.

Child rape

In 2013 they held a protest outside the Old Bailey to highlight media racism when a group of men from Oxford were on trial. [10] In 2014 WAR submitted 37 questions to the Home Affairs Select Committee regarding the responsibilities of various authorities for child rape in Rotherham. [11]

False allegations

In 2014 WAR publicly criticised the increasing numbers of women being prosecuted for false allegations of rape and claimed some were innocent or should never have been jailed. They released the figure that 109 women had been prosecuted for lying in seven years. [12] WAR took its seven-year campaign into Parliament [13] and gave a platform to family campaigns who said they and their loved ones had been victims of a miscarriage of justice.

Domestic violence

WAR campaigns for the police to stop separating investigations of rape and domestic violence when they are committed by the same man, and part of a pattern. They say that juries are less likely to convict if they are deprived of information.[ citation needed ]

Separation of children from mothers

WAR is part of the Support not Separation coalition, [14] founded in 2017 to prevent the unwarranted separation of children from their mothers, particularly following domestic violence. They say witnessing violence is not as harmful as separation from their main carer.[ citation needed ]

Criminal injuries compensation

In 2018 WAR's national campaign for compensation, [15] working with applicants throughout England and Wales, helped win major concessions from the courts and government to review eligibility rules which disproportionately deny compensation to victims of sexual violence.

Opposing austerity cuts

WAR actively supported legal challenges including of the benefit cap, that Personal Independence Payment should take into account mental illness caused by rape trauma and oppose the two-child limit on tax credits, and protested cuts to legal aid and women's support services. All of these have cut women's and children's escape routes out of violence. [16] WAR campaigns for financial independence for women as well as resources so women and children can escape rape and domestic violence.

Opposing sexual harassment

The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union (BFAWU) approached WAR to assist in the union's campaign against sexual harassment and violence in the fast food and hospitality industries. The union aims to ensure that workers can report abuse, win justice and stop further violence. [17]

See also

Publications

Related Research Articles

Acquaintance rape is rape that is perpetrated by a person who knows the victim. Examples of acquaintances include someone the victim is dating, a classmate, co-worker, employer, family member, spouse, counselor, therapist, religious official, or medical doctor. Acquaintance rape includes a subcategory of incidents labeled date rape that involves people who are in romantic or sexual relationships with each other. When a rape is perpetrated by a college student on another student, the term campus rape is sometimes used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera Baird</span> British barrister and politician (born 1950)

Dame Vera Baird is a British barrister and politician who has held roles as a government minister, police and crime commissioner, and Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales.

Sexual violence is any harmful or unwanted sexual act—or attempt to obtain a sexual act through violence or coercion—or an act directed against a person's sexuality without their consent, by any individual regardless of their relationship to the victim. This includes forced engagement in sexual acts, attempted or completed, and may be physical, psychological, or verbal. It occurs in times of peace and armed conflict situations, is widespread, and is considered to be one of the most traumatic, pervasive, and most common human rights violations.

Native American women encounter a disproportionate level of sexual violence from verbal abuse to physical harm, including but not limited to domestic and sexual assaults. Such violations not only result in lasting detrimental effects on the individuals subjected to them but also reverberate throughout their entire community, exacerbating social challenges.

Rape is a type of sexual assault initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, under threat or manipulation, by impersonation, or with a person who is incapable of giving valid consent.

Rape can be categorized in different ways: for example, by reference to the situation in which it occurs, by the identity or characteristics of the victim, and by the identity or characteristics of the perpetrator. These categories are referred to as types of rape. The types described below are not mutually exclusive: a given rape can fit into multiple categories, by for example being both a prison rape and a gang rape, or both a custodial rape and the rape of a child.

Statistics on rape and other acts of sexual assault are commonly available in industrialized countries, and have become better documented throughout the world. Inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape can create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rape</span> Type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse without consent

Rape is a type of sexual assault involving sexual intercourse, or other forms of sexual penetration, carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or against a person who is incapable of giving valid consent, such as one who is unconscious, incapacitated, has an intellectual disability, or is below the legal age of consent. The term rape is sometimes casually inaccurately used interchangeably with the term sexual assault.

The anti-rape movement is a sociopolitical movement which is part of the movement seeking to combat violence against and the abuse of women.

A false accusation of rape happens when a person states that they or another person have been raped when no rape has occurred. Although there are widely varying estimates of the prevalence of false accusation of rape, according to a 2013 book on forensic victimology, very few reliable scientific studies have been conducted.

Victims' rights are legal rights afforded to victims of crime. These may include the right to restitution, the right to a victims' advocate, the right not to be excluded from criminal justice proceedings, and the right to speak at criminal justice proceedings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect</span> US nonprofit organization

The Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR), known as the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape from 1975 to 2023, is an organization that opposes rape and sexual violence in Pennsylvania and the United States, and advocates for victims of sexual violence.

Prosecution of gender-targeted crimes is the legal proceedings to prosecute crimes such as rape and domestic violence. The earliest documented prosecution of gender-based/targeted crimes is from 1474 when Sir Peter von Hagenbach was convicted for rapes committed by his troops. However, the trial was only successful in indicting Sir von Hagenbach with the charge of rape because the war in which the rapes occurred was "undeclared" and thus the rapes were considered illegal only because of this. Gender-targeted crimes continued to be prosecuted, but it was not until after World War II when an international criminal tribunal – the International Military Tribunal for the Far East – were officers charged for being responsible of the gender-targeted crimes and other crimes against humanity. Despite the various rape charges, the Charter of the Tokyo Tribunal did not make references to rape, and rape was considered as subordinate to other war crimes. This is also the situation for other tribunals that followed, but with the establishments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), there was more attention to the prosecution of gender-targeted crimes with each of the statutes explicitly referring to rape and other forms of gender-targeted violence.

In 2007, the U.S. Department of State reported 31,833 rapes in China, but no similar report by the Chinese government has been made available. Same-sex sexual assault between male adults was made illegal in late 2015. Domestic and foreign victims of sex trafficking in China are raped.

Rape is a major issue in Afghanistan. A number of human rights organizations have criticized the country's rape laws and their enforcement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rape in Islamic law</span> Sexual violation as interpreted in Islamic theological jurisprudence

In Islam, human sexuality is governed by Islamic law, also known as Sharia. Accordingly, sexual violation is regarded as a violation of moral and divine law. Islam divides claims of sexual violation into 'divine rights' and 'interpersonal rights' : the former requiring divine punishment and the latter belonging to the more flexible human realm.

A marry-your-rapist law, marry-the-rapist law, or rape-marriage law is a rule of rape law in a jurisdiction under which a man who commits rape, sexual assault, statutory rape, abduction or other similar act is exonerated if he marries his female victim, or in some jurisdictions at least offers to marry her. The "marry-your-rapist" law is a legal way for the accused to avoid prosecution or punishment.

Eleanor Poppy Miranda de Freitas was an English woman who committed suicide three days before the commencement of her trial for perverting the course of justice for allegedly making a false accusation of rape. Her death prompted a debate over whether prosecuting people accused of making a false accusation of rape could deter rape victims from reporting the crime, as well as whether it was appropriate to prosecute vulnerable individuals.

Domestic violence in South Korea is the mental, physical, verbal or sexual abuses or crimes of violence committed towards a victim in a domestic setting of marital relations and cohabitation. Domestic violence describes violence towards a domestic partner, towards children and between siblings. According to the Domestic Violence Survey of South Korea in 2010, elder abuse was estimated to be 10%, physical abuse accounted for 2.2%, emotional abuse 9%, economic abuse 1.2%, and neglect 2.5%. Marital violence has been the most prevalent form of family violence in South Korea. One out of six couples in South Korea had more than one episode of physical violence from their spouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal career of Keir Starmer</span> From 1987 to 2013

The British prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, practised law before his political career began in 2015. Since he became a barrister in 1987, he has mostly dealt with criminal defence work on human rights matters. In 2008, he became Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), holding these positions until 2013.

References

  1. ↑ "Statement of Aims 1976". Women Against Rape. 26 November 2018. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  2. ↑ Williamson, Adrian (4 May 2017). "The Law and Politics of Marital Rape in England, 1945–1994". Women's History Review. 26 (3): 382–413. doi:10.1080/09612025.2015.1133536. ISSN   0961-2025. S2CID   147351490.
  3. ↑ Adams, Nicki; Lopez-Jones, Nina (1995). "The Guilty Victim: Rape and the CPS". Socialist Lawyer (25): 30–31. ISSN   0954-3635. JSTOR   42950155.
  4. ↑ Mills, Heather (20 September 1995). "Rapist jailed after prostitutes bring private prosecution". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  5. ↑ "Continuing struggle over rape cases". BBC News. 16 February 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Bowcott, Owen (11 June 2015). "Landmark rape prosecution revisited in courtroom drama Pursuing Justice". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  7. ↑ "You searched for why are the police". Women Against Rape. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  8. ↑ "Home". Women Against Rape. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  9. ↑ "legal action for women | Free legal service for low income women" . Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  10. ↑ "Protest against rape and racism on the day of sentencing the Oxford rapists, Old Bailey, London, 26 June 2013". Women Against Rape. 14 June 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  11. ↑ "Child Rape in Rotherham: Questions rape survivors, parents and the general public want answers to". Women Against Rape. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  12. ↑ "109 women prosecuted for false rape claims in five years, say campaigners". the Guardian. 1 December 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  13. ↑ 12 Report on FA mtg in http://againstrape.net/jail-rapists-not-rape-victims-2-dec-house-of-commons
  14. ↑ "Support Not Separation". Support Not Separation. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  15. ↑ "Compensation Archives". Women Against Rape. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  16. ↑ "Poverty & Violence Archives". Women Against Rape. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  17. ↑ "BFAWU announces launch of Sexual Harassment campaign and supported by our sisters from Women against rape". Bakers. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.