We must fix our broken legal system to help protect women from sexual abuse

Barrister and writer Cherie Blair explains why now more than ever we must do all we can to protect survivors of rape and assault

The legal system must be overhauled to increase women’s confidence in reporting these heinous crimes and be supported when they have the courage to do so (Chris Jackson/WPA/Getty)

When I started as a barrister over 45 years ago, the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976 had just come into force, but there was little understanding of the dynamics of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and rape.

Domestic abuse was regarded as “just a domestic” and not the social issue we know it to be today. It would be more than a decade before marital rape was made illegal in the early 1990s.

Whilst progress has been made to improve legislation around VAWG (violence against women and girls) there is still a long way to go, and it is clear pervasive rape myths still exist which prevent survivors from accessing justice. Rape still has the lowest charging level of any crime and when around only 1 per cent of reported rapes lead to a conviction in England and Wales, it is clear the legal system is woefully failing survivors.