Barrister Harriet Johnson
(Picture: Tony Blake)Since the death of Sarah Everard in March 2021, a spotlight has been shone on the dire situation when it comes to violence against women. Figures this year have shown that only 1.3 per cent of reported rapes are being prosecuted. Only 70 per cent of those cases end in a conviction.
To put it another way: in around 99 per cent of rape cases, the alleged rapist walks free. While rape can be difficult to prove, in my experience — working as a barrister who tries to get justice for women failed by the system — there is a troubling culture of misogyny in the police that means women who approach them for help are routinely being denied justice.
Which is why the latest government policy should be particularly alarming for those who care about ending violence against women. The government’s proposals to do away with the Human Rights Act and replace it with a ‘Bill Of Rights’ were fleshed out in the Queen’s speech last week. The proposed Bill Of Rights promises to focus on “reducing unnecessary litigation and avoiding undue risk aversion for bodies delivering public services”.
Let’s be clear: one of the things they’re talking about — in this discrete bullet point, buried in a 140-page briefing — is making it harder to bring legal action against the police.
For policy reasons, it is already nearly impossible to sue the police for negligence. So for women who suffer rape or serious sexual violence and are failed by the police, often their only meaningful hope of justice lies in the Human Rights Act, which grants women a right to have their claim properly investigated by the police.
For the women I represent – whose allegations of rape are routinely ignored, belittled, or laughed at — the Human Rights Act is often the only way they have to hold those police officers to account.
For my client who reported her rape, only to have police officers email each other describing it as “plainly b****cks” (despite evidence later emerging that it was, in fact, true), it was the Human Rights Act that gave her justice.
For my client whose forensic report was mis-read by police, meaning that her rape allegation was discontinued despite there being definitive independent evidence supporting it, it was the Human Rights Act that gave her justice.
For my client who gave a detailed recorded account of her serious sexual assault only to later discover that police had not only lost the tapes of the interview, they had not even spoken to the alleged perpetrator before they dismissed the allegation, it was the Human Rights Act that gave her justice.
Now, instead of protecting one of the only routes to justice available to women failed by the police, the government is seeking to shut it down with a watered-down Bill Of Rights designed to protect the government, not its citizens.
For those who care about violence against women, the proposal to bin the Human Rights Act should be very concerning indeed.
Enough: The Violence Against Women and How to End It by Harriet Johnson is published by William Collins and is out now
