Rape is widely recognised as one of the most serious criminal offences, a weapon of war, social control and a key indicator of the health or breakdown of the Rule of Law anywhere in the world.
In England and Wales, we are currently recording some of the worst conviction rates on record and waiting times between complaint and charging decision have multiplied in recent years. Victims’ groups describe “digital strip-searching” with complainants having to give up their mobile phones in the police station in exchange for the consideration of their case. Official Government guidance currently discourages therapy during the lengthy pre-trial period for fear of memory “contamination” or compromising testimony. Meanwhile front-line investigation, prosecution, court and support professionals talk of a chronically underfunded system struggling with the additional burdens of investigation and disclosure in a twenty-first century communications landscape.
Further afield, high profile cases in Cyprus, India and a number of other jurisdictions suggest a misogyny backlash against sexual equality, integrity and security whether in the personal, public or grey intermediate sphere.
This Panel and public discussion marking International Women’s Day 2020 will explore all of these challenging issues in a safe, sensitive but still rigorous environment.
This event will be followed by a drinks reception on the ground floor of the Centre Building. This event is free to attend and seating is allocated on a first come, first served basis. We recommend that you arrive 15 minutes before the scheduled start time to avoid disappointment.
About the Speakers
Dr Yassin Brunger is Lecturer in Human Rights Law at Queen's University Belfast and Co-Director of the QUB Gender Network (@Gender_Network). She is a feminist academic-activist and specialises in gender, human rights and international law. She has worked with international organizations, national governments, and civil society across the globe on issues of sexual and gender-based violence and gender inequality.
Sarah Green is Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, a UK-wide coalition of around 80 women’s organisations working to end all forms of violence against women and girls, including: domestic and sexual violence, forced marriage, FGM, trafficking, abuse related to prostitution, stalking, sexual harassment and more. The Coalition is currently campaigning on access to justice and to therapeutic support for rape survivors, and is bringing a strategic legal case against the CPS for its failure in this area; and is trying to ensure new domestic violence legislation includes protection for migrant women.
Sirin Kale is a freelance journalist for the Guardian, VICE, Wired, Vogue, GQ, and other publications. She is a former editor atVICE's international women's publication Broadly, where she specialised in reporting on sexual violence and women's rights. In 2018, she launched VICE's anti-stalking campaign Unfollow Me, in partnership with anti-stalking charity Paladin.
Lewis Power QC is an international criminal barrister within Church Court Chambers, known for his handling of complex international cases. The spectrum of his expertise ranges from cases of the most serious criminal nature such as murder, rape and sexual offences war crimes, modern slavery and international fraud, to representing high profile sports personalities and regulatory cases. Lewis’s international profile came to the fore recently as he represented the young British woman found guilty of lying about being gang-raped by a group of Israeli youths in Cyprus and he is currently leading the appeal against her conviction.
Harriet Wistrich is founder and director of the Centre for Women’s Justice, a multi partner organisation aimed at bringing cases holding the state to account in relation to violence against women and girls. She is a solicitor with the renowned civil liberties firm, Birnberg Peirce Ltd. She is the winner of the Liberty Human Rights Lawyer of the Year award 2014, Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year 2018 and Law Society legal personality of the year 2019. She is also a founder of the campaign group Justice for Women and trustee of the charity, the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize. At the Centre for Women’s Justice she heads up the strategic litigation team which is taking forward a number of significant strategic litigation challenges including acting on behalf of the End Violence Against Women Coalition to challenge the DPP with regard the collapse in prosecutions for rape.
About the Chair
Baroness Shami Chakrabarti is the Shadow Attorney General and a member of the House of Lords. A lawyer, she is Honorary Professor of Law at the University of Bristol and the University of Manchester and an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge and Mansfield College, Oxford and a Master of the Bench of Middle Temple. She was previously Chancellor of both Oxford Brookes University and then the University of Essex.