This is the joint website of  Women Against Rape and Black Women's Rape Action Project. Both organisations are based on self-help and provide support, legal information and advocacy. We campaign for justice and protection for all women and girls, including asylum seekers, who have suffered sexual, domestic and/or racist violence.

WAR was founded in 1976. It has won changes in the law, such as making rape in marriage a crime, set legal precedents and achieved compensation for many women. BWRAP was founded in 1991. It focuses on getting justice for women of colour, bringing out the particular discrimination they face. It has prevented the deportation of many rape survivors. Both organisations are multiracial.

 

 

 

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Latest News

URGENT Women on Hunger strike in Yarl’s Wood being beaten by guards

Report of the trial of Mrs Gail Sherwood in Bristol Crown Court On 8 January 2010 Mrs Gail Sherwood was put on trial accused of making false allegations. She has had WAR’s support for nearly two years.

audiencewideshot.JPGWomen speak out in Parliament against detention, deportation, privatisation and profiteering

Letter in the Independent Child abuse by Border Agency (All African Women's Group website)

Exposing how rape is deprioritised

shadowrapeanon.jpgTaxi rapes case lays police failures bare John Worboys's victims were let down by a careless and prejudiced police investigation. It's an all too familiar story
Comment is Free, Guardian

Damning IPCC report condemns investigation of rape of teenager The girl's mother speaks for WAR, ". . . my concern is to get justice for my child, and also to prevent other families going through the trauma. But it will continue to happen while those responsible for deprioritising rape get away with it.  [They] should be sacked for it, they should not be allowed to move on, be promoted, and then retire on full pensions.”
Two serial attackers:  Worboys Reid

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Victories

A mother and torture survivor, and her five children, have won a precedent-setting, six figure compensation award from the Home Office for abuse and injuries sustained during deportation to Uganda in 2006. Ms A says: "When I got deported I thought I was finished but WAR didn’t drop me..."
More   
Read about other victories

This family must be reunited

Peace.jpg"My four children were lost in Burundi where I was forced to leave them when I fled for my life after being imprisoned, raped and tortured...I got indefinite leave to remain after years of struggle but I have no automatic right to family reunion. Earlier this year I applied for entry clearance visas for my children to join me in U.K. At the end of September these were refused."
Write to the Home Secretary and the UKBA urging them to reconsider and issue the children with visas immediately.

Donations

Donatebutton.gifDonations to WAR via Just Giving
What people say about WAR
Battle to prioritise a heinous crime, Hampstead & Highgate Express 2 April 2009

To donate to BWRAP and read what people say about us
"It is often underestimated how much Black women’s organisations do for the Black Community". Bernie Grant, MP
Online donation facility coming soon!

Domestic violence?

You’re entitled to protection. Come to our free legal advice clinic with Silvers Solicitors @ Crossroads Women’s Centre in Kentish Town, 12 – 1.30pm, Last Monday of every month More

A Question of Consent - House of Commons

BBC News Channel

Statistics

One in six women has been raped.

Of Black women, nearly 1 in 8 has suffered racist sexual assault.

98% of domestic violence is not reported to the police.

Only 2.7% of applications for paternal child contact are refused (of a total of 46,000 in 2003).

An estimated 50% of women seeking asylum in Britain have fled rape.

Less than 7% of reported rapes result in conviction.

In 2007-8, 14,417 rapes were reported to the police.

On average, 15% of reported rapes were written off as “no crime” by the police, so don’t appear in crime statistics.

In Northumbria, 45% of reported rapes were not recorded as a crime.

One in four sex offenders were only given a caution.

809 cautions were for sexual assault on a woman and 299 were for sexual activity with a child under 16.

Another 130 cautions were for sexual activity with a child under 13.

One to two women a week are murdered by their partner or ex-partner.

1,966 cautions were handed out for sex offences, including 34 rapes or attempted rapes.

A third of women in Britain have suffered domestic violence.

In 30%- 60% of domestic violence cases, the abusive partner is also directly abusing children in the family.

One in three teenage girls has suffered sexual abuse from a boyfriend, one in six has been pressured into sex.

One in four teenage girls has experienced violence in a relationship and one in 16 have been raped.