Speakers: Sharon Holland and bereaved families, Kirith Entwistle MP (Chair), Jess Phillips MP (Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls), Alex Davies-Jones MP (Minister for Victims and Violence Against Women and Girls), Sophie Naftlin (Solicitor-Bhatt Murphy), Nicole Jacobs (Domestic Abuse Commissioner), Tim Woodhouse (Churchill Fellow, Suicide Prevention Researcher), Diana Nammi (Executive Director – IKWRO) and Pragna Patel (Co-Director of Project Resist)
The meeting will discuss the current crisis in state responses to violence against women and girls, particularly the alarming failure to address the high levels of domestic abuse related suicides, which now surpass domestic abuse related homicides. Bereaved families and experts from diverse backgrounds will highlight the systemic and persistent failures of the police, Crown Prosecution Service, the broader criminal justice system and other agencies to acknowledge the underlying patterns of coercive and controlling behaviour that contributes directly to a pervasive culture of indifference, neglect and abject failure to investigate such deaths as potential homicides.
After four decades of legislation and policy addressing violence against women and girls, we pose the question: what will it take to bridge the gap between law and justice? Join us in what promises to be a powerful event that can and must serve as a catalyst for change and for the forging of solidarity among all those impacted by domestic violence and injustice.
*Please note that ID will be required to access Portcullis House alongside your ticket.
