- Target:
- Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary
- Region:
- United Kingdom
- Website:
- www.fawcettsociety.org.uk
Thanks to all who signed in support of better support services and investigative practices for women who have been raped.
The petition is now closed.
Please add your signature to the open letter below, addressed to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary.
Every 34 minutes a rape is reported to the police in the United Kingdom. Thousands more victims do not come forward.
Yet women are being failed by the criminal justice system, and left with nowhere to turn for support. We need your help to make a difference.
Please add your signature below, and we will present the letter to her after the end of the campaign on 8th March, International Women's Day.
If you have any problems signing online, please email your name and organisation (if appropriate) to petition@fawcettsociety.org.uk or call us on 020 7253 2598 and we will add your name to the letter.
Dear Home Secretary
Every 34 minutes a rape is reported to the police in the United Kingdom. Thousands more victims do not come forward.
Yet despite the scale of the problem, the Government has failed to provide the support that women want and need. The few remaining rape crisis centres are at risk of closing due to inadequate and insecure funding, and the vast majority of women in the UK have nowhere to turn to for support in their local area.
Not only are women who have been raped denied access to support, they are also denied access to justice. Only one out of every twenty rapes reported to the police results in a conviction, with less than one in five rapes even leading to a prosecution. This failure to bring rapists to justice amounts to a near ‘licence to rape’.
Money must be invested in support services without delay, so that every area has a fully-funded rape crisis centre, while the Government must take immediate steps to ensure that real improvements are made in criminal justice practice, so that every case is properly investigated.
The Government must do more for victims of rape. We call on you to give this issue the political priority that it deserves.
The Justice for rape victims petition to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary was written by Fawcett Society and is in the category Justice at GoPetition.