Have your say in a campaign to bust rape myth
Raise Your Voice is a part of the Gillen Implementation Review Team Working Group including through the sub-committee on education and awareness. This is the team responsible for acting on the recommendations of the Gillen Review, specifically those that recognise the prevalence of rape myths in our society and seeks to change that.
This involves working in a team of organisations including representatives from Nexus, Cara Friend, Common Youth, the Rainbow Project, Health & Social Care Trusts, Women’s Aid, NSPCC, Informing Choices NI, NI Youth Forum, Compass Advocacy Network, and the Men’s Advisory Project. It is led by Department of Justice staff.
The work of this team has included designing a survey to gather public views on the myths around rape and sexual offences. Commonly called “rape myths”, these are false beliefs, biased expectations, and misconceptions about the realities of rape and sexual assault. These myths can be used to excuse sexual violence, justify rape, and especially to create hostility towards victims. These can be extremely harmful to victims and survivors of this violence, and they can lead to bias in criminal prosecutions, making it difficult for survivors to access justice.
The survey is open until November 15th, it is totally anonymous, and it takes just a few minutes to complete. We encourage everyone to fill it in if they have not done so yet, and to share it with anyone they think might be interested in helping to shape this work.
Following the close of the survey, the working group which includes Raise Your Voice, will use the survey responses to develop a campaign designed to raise awareness of the myths and to challenge them directly, replacing them with facts and accurate information. We hope that this will be a vital part of challenging rape culture in Northern Ireland and changing the culture that allows sexual violence to happen at horrifying levels with minimal punishment.
Here is the link to the survey, and we will be grateful for every response: