A Child’s Name Isn’t His Claim
The law has failed a woman and her child - and now they’re fighting back
A six-year-old girl has been forced by a High Court ruling to keep the surname of the man who raped her mother. He hasn’t seen her in years, has threatened to kill them both, and yet the court decided his name should define her “identity and heritage”.
This isn’t justice - it’s state-sanctioned harm. Her mother is challenging the decision with support from the Good Law Project, taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights under Article 8. The aim: to set a precedent that recognises the trauma of rape and stops courts from giving lifelong power to abusers.
No child should carry an abuser’s name. No survivor should be retraumatised by the courts.
The crowdfunder supports the legal challenge and the work needed to protect families like D’s - and to force meaningful change. See links below.
Who is Good Law Project
Good Law Project is a UK-based non-profit that uses the law to drive change and hold the Government to account. Founded in 2017, it brings strategic legal challenges - often crowdfunded -to expose failures in public decision-making and push for greater transparency, fairness, and protection of rights.
