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.

Some days, the news doesn’t just inform us - it presses on us.

Stories of violence against women and girls.
Police failures that feel systemic, not exceptional.
Powerful men protected by money and status; women silenced.

Names surface again and again - Sean Combs, Jeffrey Epstein - reminders of how long abuse can hide in plain sight when power is involved.

And this week, the pattern feels especially relentless.

Different opinions. Different perspectives. Different ways of being heard.

Make Yourself Heard exists to create space - for voices that challenge, question, create, and care. We know that not everyone’s work fits a traditional format, and not every story is told in the same way. That’s exactly why this platform exists.

We’re always open to submissions across writing, campaigning, advocacy, and creative practice.

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.

This winter, Rape Crisis South London is raising vital funds to ensure survivors of sexual violence can access specialist counselling, advocacy, and community support. Your donation helps break the silence and ensures survivors are believed, supported, and heard.

Healing Hearts: Life After CSE are raising funds for a Survivor’s Ball - a survivor-led event created specifically for victims and survivors of child sexual exploitation.

For many survivors, moments that should have been joyful - school proms, celebrations, feeling carefree and safe - were never possible because of what they endured. This ball is about giving something back: a day centred on joy, dignity, and connection, in a space designed with care, safety, and understanding at its heart.

Sisters Uncut: Open Meeting

Sisters Uncut are holding an open meeting on 11 January to honour the life of Sarah Reed and to organise around the urgent issues that continue to shape our justice landscape: anti-fascism, police brutality, and the failures within the domestic abuse sector.

Change doesn’t happen in isolation - it comes from communities, networks, and individuals who use their voice and energy to push for better. In the work we do, we’ve been fortunate to connect with some incredible friends and allies who are leading conversations online, building awareness, and advocating for justice in powerful ways.

Too often, the voices of victims and survivors are pushed aside, or the issues affecting them are spoken about without them. That’s why it matters so much to highlight and amplify people who are not only speaking truth, but also creating space for others to be heard.

The government has committed to changing the law so that survivors’ previous experiences of rape and sexual violence can no longer be used against them in court - a long-fought reform led by Imkaan, Centre for Women’s Justice, Rights of Women, Rape Crisis England & Wales and EVAW.

Call for Participants: Galop’s Survivor Research Group

Galop is creating a new Survivor Research Group and is inviting LGBT+ survivors in England and Wales to register their interest. The group will meet online every three months to help shape Galop’s research - from co-designing ethical approaches to analysing data alongside their policy team.

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.

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”.

The 5 senses grounding technique.

Something that really stuck with me from a therapy session - creating a little grounding pouch to carry with you. A handful of small, familiar things that help you reconnect to your body and the present moment when life feels too much.

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.

When families lose loved ones to fatal male violence, the least they deserve is justice. Yet for too many Black, minoritised, and migrant (BMM) women - and their families - justice remains out of reach.

On 31 October 2025, Killed Women launched INVISIBLE WOMEN, a groundbreaking campaign to confront systemic racism, neglect, and institutional failure across policing, justice, and support services.

Family-led and survivor-driven, the campaign demands accountability, visibility, and reform. It amplifies the voices of bereaved families who are standing together to say: enough.

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.