the Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy set out a vision to bring the criminal justice system into the 21st century - pulling what he calls three levers: investment, reform and modernisation.

The message is clear:
Delay has become normalised.
Backlog has become embedded.
That era is ending.

The Guardian’s editorial last week lays bare a truth many families have known for years: when women take their own lives in the context of domestic abuse, justice is too often absent.

The statistics are chilling. Suspected suicides following domestic abuse now rival - and may exceed - the number of women killed directly by partners. Yet these deaths are still routinely processed as isolated tragedies, rather than potential outcomes of sustained coercive control.

Behind every number is a family left not only grieving, but fighting.

In 2010, Nina Cresswell reported a violent sexual assault to the police. Within hours, she was told it wasn’t a crime.

A decade later - after years of carrying the weight of that dismissal - she spoke out publicly to protect other women. The man she named sued her for defamation.

He dragged her through a three-year legal battle. And she won.

At the centre of France’s largest rape trial, she waived her legal right to anonymity and chose an open hearing. Not for exposure - but for principle. She refused to carry the shame that was never hers.

An open courtroom meant the men on trial did not benefit from invisibility. It meant the public saw what coercion and chemical submission actually look like. It shifted where responsibility sits.

Fightback is a powerful short film examining how the criminal justice system treats women who have experienced serious, often prolonged abuse.

The film explores cases where women are serving life sentences after acting in circumstances shaped by violence, coercion and fear - yet their experiences are minimised or misunderstood once they enter the courtroom. Context is stripped away, trauma is reframed as intent, and survival is judged through legal frameworks that fail to reflect the reality of abuse.

The Review sets out more than 130 recommendations to address delays and inefficiencies in a system described as being “on the brink of collapse.” Many of these proposals are necessary. But the central message is unavoidable: efficiency measures alone will not repair a system that is structurally failing those it exists to serve.

From a survivor’s perspective, delay is not an abstract operational problem. It is lived in years of uncertainty, repeated adjournments, poor communication, and the constant requirement to keep trauma active while waiting for a process that may never conclude.

This week marks a significant moment in the fight against image-based abuse.

Following months of campaigning by survivors, advocates and organisations including End Violence Against Women Coalition, Not Your Porn, Glamour UK, Professor Clare McGlynn and survivor-campaigner Jodie, a new law has come into force criminalising the creation of non-consensual intimate images - including AI-generated deepfakes.

The Victims’ Code is intended to set out the rights victims can expect throughout the criminal justice process - including access to information, support, participation and respectful treatment. While its foundations are widely seen as important, many people continue to experience gaps in awareness, communication and consistent delivery.

This consultation is an opportunity to help strengthen what exists.

Men are secretly recording women on nights out and profiting from the footage online - leaving those filmed feeling unsafe, exposed, and failed by laws and platforms that still treat this as a grey area.

A new investigation by BBC News has exposed a disturbing and fast-growing online economy built on men covertly filming women on nights out, uploading the footage as “walking tours” or “nightlife content”, and profiting from it.

Liv Nervo is known globally as one half of NERVO - a superstar DJ, producer, and songwriter whose career has unfolded on the world’s biggest stages. But behind the confetti cannons, festivals, and flawless public image sits a far more intimate story: one of deception, violated consent, and the long shadow of reproductive coercion.

In a powerful piece shared with the Good Law Project, Liv has spoken publicly after years of being legally gagged - naming her experience for what it was, and reclaiming her voice.

A super-complaint on excessively long police investigations into sexual offences has been formally accepted for investigation. Three national oversight bodies will now examine systemic delays that have left tens of thousands of survivors waiting years for progress - marking an important step towards accountability and reform.

A BBC investigation exposes something many women already know too well: technology is being used to replicate harm, faster and at scale.

A woman described feeling “dehumanised and reduced to a sexual stereotype” after Grok, the AI tool linked to Elon Musk and the platform X, was used to digitally remove her clothes without consent. Not because she shared anything sexual. Not because she agreed. But because the technology allowed it - and the platform failed to stop it.

In 2025, Open Justice For All changed the law. That sentence matters - but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

Behind the headline achievement sit hundreds of unanswered emails. Proposals rejected. Hostility toward those seeking transparency. And the familiar experience of reform being diluted once it edges closer to power.

Centre for Women’s Justice, Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre, Rape Crisis England & Wales and Bindmans LLP have launched a rare police super-complaint, challenging the scale and harm of excessively long police investigations into sexual offences.

The government has announced a new package of reforms aimed at giving rape victims a fairer, safer experience in court and tackling the rape myths that continue to shape trial outcomes.

The announcement forms part of the government’s Plan for Change to rebuild trust in the system and halve violence against women and girls within a decade.

Rape Crisis England & Wales has launched Living in Limbo, their new report exposing something survivors have been saying for years: the criminal justice system is retraumatising people long before a trial ever begins.

A new opportunity has been launched for young people aged 18–25 to help shape how the UK understands and discusses the rule of law. The Attorney General’s Office has opened applications for its first Youth Ambassadors Programme (YAP) - a six-month initiative putting young voices at the centre of public legal education.

Youth Ambassadors will co-design a national communications campaign, take part in expert-led workshops, and visit key legal and political institutions while working alongside the Law Officers.

The Solicitor General has confirmed that the CPS Victims’ Right to Review (VRR) pilot in the West Midlands will continue while its impact is evaluated, with victims and survivors directly contributing to how it evolves.

This week, campaigners across Ireland are uniting to demand long-overdue reform of the family law courts - a system many say is failing those it is meant to protect.

This Wednesday, campaigners including Nicola Fox - known for her advocacy around the #BringHarryHome and #FreeNicolaFox movements - will gather outside Leinster House in Dublin at 1 pm for a peaceful protest. The demonstration aims to shed light on what many mothers and children endure behind closed doors and to push for meaningful legislative and cultural change within the family justice system.

Over recent months, so-called “self-swab rape kits” have been promoted online and on university campuses as a way to “end rape” - marketed as tools for survivors to collect their own evidence or confirm what’s happened to them.

But leading organisations - including Rape Crisis England & Wales, Victim Support, and the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine (FFLM) - are warning that these kits could put survivors at risk, offering false reassurance instead of real protection. Experts across law, medicine, and forensics have voiced concern that such products may mislead survivors, retraumatise them, and fail in both legal and emotional terms.