Call on GE candidates to commit to a nationwide court accompaniment service
Rape Crisis Ireland call on General Election candidates to commit to fund a national accompaniment service for all survivors of sexual violence seeking to pursue justice.
Nikita Hand has spoken of the importance and value of the accompaniment she received from her support worker from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre. This support involves a trained professional who understands sexual violence and its impact as well as the complex justice system. A survivor can access this service as they are considering reporting, right through every stage of a case and they will be there for survivors in the aftermath of the process.
This is a critical service. Shamefully it is not an equitable national service available to all survivors no matter where they live.
RCI has been delivering the national standardised training for this accompaniment role for over 20 years and administering funding for the volunteer based, ad hoc service, which responds to survivors as they contact a rape crisis centre. We have worked in recent years to move this to a model with dedicated workers such as the Dublin Centre’s accompaniment service. To date the Government have declined to fund this and the pilot programme the rape crisis sector proposed.
This must change. Every survivor deserves to have access to an accompaniment worker when they need them no matter where they live in the country.
RCI’s manifesto calls for:
Establish and fund advocacy services nationally for all survivors of sexual violence in the justice process equally regardless of geographic location.
For our full manifesto please see: RCI Policy & Campaigns
For more please contact Clíona Saidléar on 0872196447 or email cliona@rcni.ie
