Event: ECP at SlutWalk
Join us at SlutWalk on Saturday 22 Sept 12.30. We’ll be gathering at the top of Piccadilly (Hyde Park end) to join the march to Trafalgar Square and the rally. Look out for our bright pink banner!
SlutWalk supports sex workers’ right to safety.
Speakers include rape survivors fighting for justice, the ECP and Sheila Farmer – who spoke movingly at last year’s SlutWalk about being prosecuted, despite her life threatening illness, for working together with other women for safety.
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SlutWalk PRESS RELEASE
Please sign the petition
Only 7 out of every 100 reported rapists are convicted. The other 93 go free.
SlutWalk wants justice for the thousands of rape survivors who were told by the police and courts that: they were dressed too provocatively, they didn’t scream loudly enough, they were too drunk or too young or too mentally ill to understand what had happened to them, they must have consented because the rapist was their (ex)husband or (ex)boyfriend, they were sex workers and should be prosecuted rather than their attackers, they were asylum seekers and should be sent back to the detention centre or deported . . .
As women we know that the justice system will not protect us from sexual and/or domestic violence. When rape is reported, police often: dismiss or downgrade the complaint, lose or fail to collect evidence, refuse to interview witnesses or make arrests, and blame the victim (usually a woman or girl) rather than the rapist. Some victims are discriminated against because they are women of colour. Some victims are even accused of lying, prosecuted and imprisoned while their attackers go free.
It does terrible things to people when they don’t get justice. Without justice there is no protection for you, your friends or family – whoever got away with it and others like him will expect to get away with it again. There is no confirmation that what happened to you was wrong and wasn’t your fault, no closure. You are left with an open wound. And you are more vulnerable to being raped again as police are more likely to disbelieve you if you have reported attacks in the past.
Police, lawyers and judges need to realise that it could be their daughters, wives, girlfriends or themselves receiving this treatment.
What can we do to get protection? And what can we do when the police themselves are the rapists, the ones who falsify statements, and the ones who accuse rape victims of lying? In the same week, it has come out that the police lied to the Hillsborough families about their loved ones in false statements, and a police officer was convicted of falsifying rape documents in order to drop cases. We want all such injustices exposed and stopped.
By marching again this year, we are letting the authorities know that we will not go away until they take rape seriously by thoroughly investigating and prosecuting, so that more rapists are convicted, men generally are discouraged from sexual violence, and women get the safety and justice we deserve. We all have a right to live free from the fear of rape.
We demand a change in police and prosecution priorities, so more rapists are convicted and we get the safety and justice we deserve. We want the freedom to live without fear of rape.