Category Archives: Rape and sexual assault

Croatian border police accused of sexually assaulting Afghan migrant

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Asylum seeker says she was threatened at knifepoint in latest in string of reports of violent pushbacks on Bosnia–Croatia border

  • Warning: this article contains graphic details of sexual abuse and violence that some readers may find upsetting

A woman from Afghanistan was allegedly sexually abused, held at knifepoint and forced to strip naked by a Croatian border police officer, during a search of a group of migrants on the border with Bosnia.

The European commission described it as a “serious alleged criminal action’’ and urged the Croatian authorities “to thoroughly investigate all allegations, and follow up with relevant actions”.

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Coercive behaviour must be prioritised in domestic abuse cases, court of appeal says

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New guidance for England and Wales welcomed but critics say it fails to address perpetuation of rape myths and ‘contact at all costs’ approach

The family courts should prioritise the issue of coercive and controlling behaviour when considering disputes between parents in domestic abuse cases, court of appeal judges have advised.

Three senior judges set out fresh guidance on how these sensitive cases should be approached as part of a 47-page judgment after hearing four linked appeals brought by mothers over child contact.

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Is pornography to blame for rise in ‘rape culture’?

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Analysis: experts split on whether easy access to porn has fuelled sexual harassment, abuse and assault among young people

The harrowing reports of sexism and assaults in schools detailed on the everyonesinvited.uk website has fuelled concerns of a “rape culture” in educational settings.

The disclosures have raised concerns that easy access to pornography is part of the problem.

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The attorney general v the ABC

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Christian Porter is suing the ABC for defamation over an article reporting that an anonymous senior cabinet minister had been accused of rape in 1988. Porter later identified himself as the minister in question and strenuously denied the allegation. Paul Karp explores how this case could play out, and whether Porter can continue to do his job while fighting to clear his name

The crisis support and suicide prevention service Lifeline can contacted on 13 11 14. Support for sexual assault is available at 1800RESPECT.

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De Klerk seeks accountability. What about his own?

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Apartheid-era South African president calls for justice for female victims of violence in Guardian article but some say his own record needs scrutiny

South Africans don’t give much thought to FW de Klerk these days. Like Mikhail Gorbachev, his fellow Nobel peace laureate, the last apartheid president is more highly regarded outside his own country than in it.

But some South Africans were taken aback to see De Klerk putting himself forward in a Guardian article on 10 March as an advocate of protecting women from violence and asserting that “holding perpetrators accountable, irrespective of how long ago the crime was committed, is essential to stamping out impunity and preventing future atrocities”.

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Actor Armie Hammer under investigation for 2017 sexual assault allegation

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The accuser, known as Effie, was 20 at the time and claims she briefly dated the Call Me by Your Name star while he was married

The actor Armie Hammer is under investigation for sexual assault, Los Angeles police said Thursday.

Hammer is the main suspect in a sexual assault that was reported to police on 3 February, an LAPD spokesperson said. Police did not give further details.

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Firefighters should not face charge of raping girl, French court rules

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Accused will face lesser offence of sexual assault in ‘Julie’ case that has sparked protests across France

France’s highest court has ruled that firefighters accused of raping a girl when she was aged between 13 and 15 should be charged with the lesser offence of sexual assault.

A woman known as Julie claims she was raped over a period of two years after being groomed by a firefighter in 2008, when she was a girl aged 13, and that he later introduced her to his colleagues. Three accused men have admitted having sex with her but say it was consensual. Seventeen others have not been charged.

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Demi Lovato says she was raped as a teenager by someone she knew

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In a new docuseries, the singer says she was assaulted as a teen and after telling somebody, the rapist ‘never got taken out of the movie they were in’

Demi Lovato has said she was raped as a teenager while working for the Disney Channel in the late 2000s by someone who faced no repercussions when she revealed what happened. The singer does not say who the offender was, only that she “had to see this person all the time” afterwards.

Related: Demi Lovato says she had three strokes and heart attack after 2018 overdose

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French MPs approve ‘non-consent’ law to protect children from sexual abuse

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Draft legislation says a child under 15 cannot be considered to have willingly engaged in a sexual act

French MPs have unanimously approved a long-awaited draft law to protect children from rape and sexual abuse.

The legislation, drawn up after a series of scandals involving high-profile figures, establishes an age of “non-consent” at 15 under which a child cannot be considered to have willingly engaged in a sexual act. In cases of incest, the age has been set at 18.

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Brittany Higgins addresses March 4 Justice rally as women demand action across Australia

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Former Liberal staffer and Grace Tame among those to address tens of thousands of protesters calling for an end to gender-based violence

Brittany Higgins’ voice shook as she addressed the crowd outside Parliament House in Canberra.

She had decided at the last minute to speak to more than a thousand people, mainly women, holding signs calling for justice for women, for sexual assault survivors and for Higgins herself, who has alleged she was raped by a colleague inside Parliament House.

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Australia politics live: organisers of March4Justice rally reject PM’s offer of closed door meeting

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More than 100,000 women are expected to march in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to demand action in response to allegations of workplace abuse. Follow latest updates

Michael McCormack Michael McCormacked his way through an interaction with Janine Hendry this morning, when she asked him for action - and for change.

He ‘can’t give that assurance’.

#March4Justiceau organiser @janine_hendry bumped into Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack in the Parliament corridors ... here's how it ended. @10NewsFirst #auspol pic.twitter.com/fnkr3nam0h

Janine Hendry, a founder and organiser of the March4Justice, explained to the ABC this morning about why organisers turned down Scott Morrison’s offer of a private meeting with a small number of march delegates:

I think it is really quite disrespectful to the women whose voices need to be heard to have a meeting with our prime minister behind closed doors.

I have invited the prime minister, as I have all other sitting members of parliament, to come and march with us, to come and listen to our voices. I don’t think it is really a big ask – we have come to Canberra.

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Endemic violence against women is causing a wave of anger

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Analysis: Sarah Everard’s disappearance sparks furious demands to address misogyny in UK

Women feared this was coming. They waited, messaging each other in WhatsApp groups and on social media. They talked about their own attempts to stay safe, discussed their near misses.

When the news came on Wednesday evening – that police investigating the disappearance of Sarah Everard had found the remains of a body – a wave of grief crashed over them, followed quickly by anger.

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Malawi police ordered to pay damages to women who say officers raped them

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Milestone ruling follows campaign for justice after township violence in wake of 2019 presidential elections

The supreme court of Malawi has ordered that police authorities pay compensation to 18 women allegedly raped by officers during post-election violence two years ago.

The decision is seen as a milestone development in women’s rights in the country.

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Why we need to take bad sex more seriously

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Consent has been portrayed as the cure for all the ills of our sexual culture. But what if the injunction to ‘know what you want’ is another form of coercion?

Sometime in the early 2010s, the porn actor James Deen made a film with a fan whom he called Girl X. He would do this now and then; fans would write to him, wanting to have sex with him, or he would put out a call to “Do a Scene with James Deen”, and the results would go up on his website.

In an interview in May 2017, only a few months before the media would be overwhelmed with discussions of assault and harassment by Harvey Weinstein and others – and only two years after Deen himself was accused of (but not charged with) multiple assaults (which he denied) – he said: “I have a ‘Do a scene with James Deen’ contest, where women can submit an application, and then, after a very long talk and months of me saying, you know, ‘Everyone’s going to find out, it’s going to affect your future’, and trying to talk them out of it kind of, then we shoot a scene.”

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Quarter of women and girls have been abused by a partner, says WHO

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Largest such study finds domestic violence experienced by one-in-four teenage girls with worst levels faced by women in their 30s

One in four women and girls around the world have been physically or sexually assaulted by a husband or male partner, according to the largest study yet of the prevalence of violence against women.

The report, conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners, found that domestic violence started young, with a quarter of 15- to 19-year-old girls and young women estimated to have been abused at least once in their lives. The highest rates were found to be among 30- to 39-year-olds.

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Allen v Farrow is pure PR. Why else would it omit so much?

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The new HBO documentary in which Mia and Dylan Farrow revisit their 1992 allegation against Woody Allen claims to be an even-handed investigation. But its failure to present the facts makes it feel more like activism

“HBO Doc About Woody Allen & Mia Farrow Ignores Mia’s 3 Dead Kids, Her Child Molester Brother, Other Family Tragedies” was the headline on one US showbiz site, above its review of the four-part documentary, Allen v Farrow, about the continuing battle between Woody Allen and Mia Farrow, now entering its fourth decade. But this review was very much an outlier. In the vast main, reaction to the strongly anti-Allen series has been overwhelmingly positive, with Buzzfeed describing it as a “nuanced reckoning” and Entertainment Weekly comparing it to the recent documentaries about Michael Jackson and Jeffrey Epstein. This reaction is more of a reflection of the public’s feelings towards Allen – particularly in the US – than of the documentary, which sets itself up as an investigation but much more resembles PR, as biased and partial as a political candidate’s advert vilifying an opponent in election season.

Related: Allen v Farrow review – effective docuseries on allegations of abuse

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Yazidis have been forgotten during Covid. They need justice, jobs and a return home | Nadia Murad

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Survivors of Islamic State brutality are pushed further into the margins as the pandemic causes the world to turn inward

Staring at the same four walls day after day, unable to find work, reunite with relatives, or send your children to school. The Covid pandemic has rendered this bleak picture a reality for many people across the globe. Yet for many who have survived or are living through conflict, these hardships are hardly novel.

For the Yazidi ethnic minority in Iraq, Islamic State’s 2014 genocide created adversity long before the pandemic ever did. For more than six years, hundreds of thousands of Yazidis have been in camps for internally displaced people (IDP) staring at the same four walls of their tents. They are unable to find work because Isis razed their farms and businesses. They cannot reunite with relatives still in Isis captivity or attend the burials of family members whose bodies remain in mass graves.

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Third woman says she was sexually assaulted by man accused of raping Brittany Higgins

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Attack took place in 2016 when she was a school leaver working as Coalition volunteer, woman says

A third woman has come forward to allege she was sexually assaulted by the same political staffer accused of raping a colleague inside Parliament House.

The woman says she was assaulted while working as a Coalition volunteer during the 2016 election campaign, after a night out drinking with the then-political staffer. She was barely out of school at the time.

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DRC is rich with farmland, so why do 22 million people there face starvation? | Vava Tampa

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For two decades the global community has stood by while militia groups have got away with killing, raping and looting

I was food shopping when I read the news. Nearly 22 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing starvation and malnutrition. Now. In 2021.

You have to wonder how a country with eight months of rain, more than 50% of all the rivers, lakes and wetlands in Africa, and more agricultural land than any African country, with the potential to feed up to 2 billion people, gets to the point where it is unable to feed its population of 100 million.

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Outrage over French girl’s rape case sparks demand for law to protect minors

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Campaigners call for the introduction of an age of consent as 20 firefighters face charges

Protests will take place across France on Sunday in support of a woman allegedly raped by 20 firefighters when she was between 13 and 15 years old. Her case is being examined in the country’s highest court this week and campaigners hope it will lead to an age of sexual consent being enshrined in law as it is in the rest of the European Union.

Julie* says she was raped by Parisian firefighters over a period of two years, having been groomed by Pierre, a firefighter who had assisted her during a severe anxiety seizure when she was 13 in early 2008. Three of the accused have admitted they had sex with her but say it was consensual. In a journal written shortly afterwards Julie says she was “terrified and paralysed with fear” at the time.

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