Daniel Craig and Benicio Del Toro join Barack Obama in anti-sexual assault campaign '1 Is 2 Many'
A string of actors and politicians star in a new film fighting sexual assault on campuses
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Your support makes all the difference.Daniel Craig, Benicio Del Toro and Steve Carell have joined US President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden in a film that aims to end sexual assault on college campuses (scroll to watch the video).
The '1 Is 2 Many' campaign also features Seth Meyers and Dulé Hill, as they each explain why the issue is so important. It also encourages men to speak up if they see someone in danger of being sexually assaulted.
“We have a big problem and we need your help,” says Del Toro. “If she doesn’t consent, or if she can’t consent, it’s rape; it’s assault."
“If I saw it happening, I’d never blame her,” says Craig. “I’d help her.”
Produced by the White House, the film will be aired in American cinemas, as well as on US military bases and ships across the world. The initiative forms part of the 'White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault' campaign.
One in five women are sexually assaulted while in college and young women aged between 16 and 24 experience the highest rates of sexual violence by someone they know.
"I am honoured to be part of such an important and crucial project,” said Craig in a statement, published on the White House website. “The message is clear and simple: everyone has a responsibility. There are no exceptions. There are no excuses. Please watch it and pass it on."
In other news, following a decrease in the number of UK rape convictions, the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders expressed concern that victims in Britain are not seeing their cases dealt with properly.
While there has been a rise in offences recorded by the police, 129 fewer rape suspects were convicted in 2013 than the year before. The number of rape cases referred to prosecutors for charging has fallen by more than a third since 2011.
One woman was told by a lawyer that they would not be pursuing her case, “particularly bearing in mind the type of underwear that you had on at the time”. She was wearing Spanx.
“We have certainly seen some indication that cases which we thought should have gone through [to charge] didn’t,” Saunders told The Independent.
“There is best practice out there. It’s just that not everyone is doing it.”
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