The Campaign for Justice for Survivors

There is a growing movement in Britain of people who want justice for survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and a safe environment for present and future children.

This cannot happen if there is a group of people in the highest ranks of authority who see themselves as above and beyond the law that protects children, who believe they can manipulate authority and avoid capture.

In this website you can find accounts of 47 instances of cover ups: here and more here.

This amounts to evidence of corruption, the misuse of political power not in this case for money but for sexual gratification.

Corruption of this kind is intolerable, especially as it is cause of so much human misery.

Sexual abuse of children is cruel at the time it is committed, but the trauma tends to stay with the survivor for the rest of their lives, although it can be overcome with determination and assistance.

Everyone knows that cruelty to children is bad. In 2014 we look down on Victorians who sent children up chimneys and down mines. We feel bad if we see photos of children in Asia breaking rocks or sifting through rubbish dumps. We look down upon those practices, because we in modern Britain do not do that.

Instead, we allow our rulers to commit serious crimes against children time and again, and get away with it.

The establishment in Westminster and Whitehall is like an Augean Stables. The corridors of power are rank with the stench of child abuse, overlaid with the synthetic air freshener of hypocrisy and studied ignorance.

For years, powerful people have been covering up for, and blocking investigation of, child sex abuse. Although there are only about 20 names pointed to by witnesses, they are big names, and the Security Services (MI5 and MI6) and Special Branch seem to be deeply involved. Therefore it is not going to be an easy task to get to truth and justice.

Hercules cleaned the Augean Stables by diverting a river through them. In our case we need a river of testimony from survivors of abuse, supported by people who are outraged by the massive injustice that soils our nation, supported in turn by the vast majority of decent people who hate cruelty to children.

A head of steam is building up within civil society to correct this injustice. All abusers must be brought to justice, but particularly abusers who have taken advantage of their positions of power to cover up their actions and block investigation into their crimes.

The campaign is at the moment is in the early stages of gathering itself together.
There are several strands to the campaign:

Social Media
Social media has given wings to this campaign, with many survivors of abuse taking to Twitter (see hashtages #csa #csainquiry #VIPaedophile and #avoice4all).

There are also a number of blogs and websites on the topic of sexual abuse.

There are several petitions in circulation, some about specific cases of injustice, one calling for the official overarching Inquiry to have survivors on the panel, and one for it to be led by Michael Mansfield QC.

Here is a petition to prevent abusers from living in proximity to their victims on discharge from prison.

Another possible web-based campaigning tool would be a database where survivors and witnesses could enter data anonymously and securely, detailing the who, where, when, and what of their abuse. This would require careful design and regular monitoring in order to anonymise the text that was published, but it would be a powerful instrument to collect data.

Peoples Tribunal
One of the main proposals is to form a Peoples Tribunal (PT) to run in parallel to the official inquiry. This is an indication of the lack of trust that has grown up, with good reason, in the ability of the establishment to offer justice to survivors of abuse.

Here is the Facebook page on the Peoples Tribunal.
There are precendents for the Peoples Tribunal in the Russell Tribunal aka International War Crimes Tribunal. There is also the Iran Tribunal which is at present looking into human rights abuses in Iran.

The Peoples Tribunal could be led by John Cooper QC.

Some questions and answers on the PT.

PT is certainly one possible way forward. It would require a lot of dedicated work, and also a lot of money to pay for full-time work, and travelling expenses etc. for witnesses.

A Conference
Another possibility that could support and initiate the PT is to call a national Conference for Survivors of Abuse.
Conferences can offer a morale boost to people who have been fighting for justice on their own for many years.
The conference could have a few speakers setting out the facts of the situation, but would be mainly devoted to workshops where survivors could talk together, offer support and discuss ideas for obtaining justice and ways of being heard.

Update 16/8/14: a conference took place on 13 September in London. Conference Report.

Arising out of the Conference, or maybe arising independently:

Network of Survivors
Mutual support networks in cities and towns where survivors can meet regularly to gain the support that peer groups can offer. This is a low-cost grassroots movement, but can be very powerful. Alcoholics Anonymous and many other self-help groups offer a model.

Parliamentary Work
The Overarching Inquiry was initiated by the "Magnificent Seven" group of MPs who represent all major parties:

  1. Tom Watson
  2. Simon Danczyk
  3. Zac Goldsmith
  4. Tim Loughton
  5. Tessa Munt
  6. Caroline Lucas

There is still much work for MPs to do, and it is important to keep writing to them.
Here is a page of MP Correspondence.

Opinion poll
from the Daily Mirror 20/9/14

//The ComRes/Sunday Mirror survey found that an overwhelming 77 per cent of those quizzed think politicians “probably” stopped details of scandals involving their colleagues from emerging. Only five per cent disagreed.

The findings come after our sensational revelation last week that sex abuse victim Anthony Gilberthorpe alerted then Premier Margaret Thatcher to widespread sex abuse by senior Tory MPs.

Of those polled, 73 per cent felt it was right that allegations of child sex abuse from the 1960s and 1970s should be probed by police. But only 30 per cent said they had faith the inquiries announced this week by the Government will uncover the truth.//

See also Policy-changes

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