Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) welcomes the announcement by the Government to introduce ‘Raneem’s Law’ which will pilot placing domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms as part of their commitment to halve violence against women and girls within in a decade. However, much more is needed, including a complete transformation of policing, if this ambition is ever to be achieved.
CWJ supported Nour Norris, aunt of Raneem who was murdered together with her mother, Khaola by Raneem’s estranged husband. An inquest concluded there were multiple police failures which contributed to the deaths of both women.
As that inquest highlighted, the failures were not only on the day of the murders but in the five months preceding where police were called on multiple occasions to the home of Raneem but failed to take appropriate action to investigate or safeguard her from the escalating violence. In the end it was left to Raneem to obtain her own civil non-molestation order which carried a police power of arrest. However, when it came to implementing this power, the police again failed with fatal consequences.
The government has also announced the roll out of pilot Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, however these have been on the agenda since the passing into law of the Domestic Abuse Act in 2022. While these new orders with additional powers are welcomed, there already exist a range of protective orders which simply are not being used or enforced by the police as CWJ’s police super-complaint of 2019 has demonstrated. If real change to the protection of women from male violence is to be achieved, we shall need more than pilots and new types of Orders. We need to see these initiatives actually implemented and enforced on the ground by police. A failure to do so should be accompanied by meaningful sanctions so that proper accountability can be introduced into the system.