Unreported rapes - State failing to protect women

“If somebody doesn’t report something to the gardaí, what can the minister do?”

Justice Minister Michael McDowell asked in relation to the high number of rapes that are not reported to the gardaí. The minister is an intelligent man and the first question he should ask is why people are not reporting rapes.

The system is heavily stacked against women who report rapes, seeing that this country has one of the lowest convictions rates for rape in all of Europe, and we top the league table when it comes to cases that are dropped after rape charges are filed.

A 2003 study, which came up with those alarming findings, noted that a woman has to wait up to three years before her case is heard in court.

During that time vital evidence is often lost or victims withdraw their cooperation in exasperation.

The legal situation requires that women who have been raped should be forensically examined before they can wash, but some women may have to travel for three or four hours before they can be examined at one of the country's sexual assault treatment units.

Rape in an appalling crime and the victims inevitably wish to put it behind them as quickly as possible and get on with their lives rather than place confidence in a system that seems ready to victimise them again.

Having required victims to undergo the necessary indignity of a forensic examination, it is intolerable that the system would then expect them to wait for up to three years while our judicial process takes its tortuous course with typical disregard for the rights and feelings of victims. This is as depraved as it is intolerable.

The 2003 study had little difficulty understanding why women did not pursue rape allegations. Those conducting the research found themselves more inclined to ask why any women pursued with their allegations in the circumstances.

Between 1993 and 2000 there was only a marginal fluctuation in the annual number of rape cases pursued. But there has been an alarming decline of over 71% in the past six years during which Mr McDowell has been either Attorney General or Justice Minister. There were just 37 rape cases before the Central Criminal Court in 2004 compared with 130 cases in 1999.

In other circumstances those figures might be welcomed as evidence of a decline in the instances of rape, but in this instance it is more like that it merely reflects the growing disillusionment of victims.

With almost half the women unwilling to confide in anyone about having been raped, much less report the crime, no reliable figures are available for the number of rapes annually. Yet there are indications that the number has been increasing.

Nearly 16,000 callers contacted the rape crisis centres last year, which was almost double the figure of three years ago. But the counselling services available are wholly inadequate with people having to wait for 18 months for counselling.

This is not just about a lack of political will to provide proper services for vulnerable women; it is about something much more fundamental the Government's failure to meet its human rights obligation to protect women.