Published in Counsel — The Magazine of the Bar of England and Wales, 25 November 2021, to mark the launch of the UN Global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

As the UN’s Global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence campaign launches each year on 25 November — the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women — I wrote this piece for Counsel Magazine to ask a direct question of every barrister and member of chambers: what can we do, individually and collectively, to prevent, protect, and prosecute gender-based violence?

Gender-based violence is not an abstract international human rights issue. It exists in the cases that come before our courts every day. It appears in the family cases involving domestic abuse; in the criminal cases of rape and serious sexual assault; in the immigration cases of women fleeing persecution. As barristers, we sit at the intersection of these systems. We have both the obligation and the opportunity to do more.

The piece explores the role that individual barristers, chambers, and the Bar Council can play — not just on one day of the year, but every day.

Read the full article in Counsel Magazine →