WE ARE CALLING ON ALL MEN in the UK to join us at our simultaneous protests at the Manchester Crown Court and the Royal Courts of Justice in London on International Men’s Day (19 November) from noon onwards.
Our protest against the justice system’s failings in taking male violence against women seriously and adequately investigating, prosecuting and sentencing men who use violence against women will take place on International Men’s Day (19 November) from noon.
The justice system is not providing adequate justice for women who suffer violence, murder, rape or sexual assault at the hands of men.
The statistics are harrowing. Between March 2017 and March 2019 the 274 women were murdered by an ex/partner or a family member (74% of all domestic homicides) with 96% of the suspects being men. (ONS). An estimated 1.6 Million women (7.5% of the female population in the UK) experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2019 (ONS). 144,000 women survived rape or an attempted rape In the year ending March 2017, making up 95% of all survivors of such attacks (ONS).
In the year ending March 2020 the police recorded 58,845 cases of rape, yet only 2,102 cases were prosecuted leading to a meagre 1,439 convictions. The most common reasons that rapes were not reported were it are embarrassment, thinking the police couldn’t help, or thinking they wouldn’t be believed. With only about 3.6% of rape cases leading to prosecution and roughly 2.4% leading to convictions (BBC) and the way in which media and police often treat women who report a rape, it is understandable that women are reluctant to report the crime. This has to change! The entire justice system, from the police to the courts needs to do more to investigate, prosecute and sentence the men who perpetrate these crimes against women. What is more, sentencing needs to be just and appropriate. The recent killing of a woman by a man she was having a casual relationship with and the fact that he was sentenced to a mere 4 years in jail for a crime that can carry between 2 years to life in jail, once again highlights that violence against women is not appropriately sentence (The Guardian).
