The Family Justice Response to Domestic Abuse - Animation

This animation was commissioned to disseminate one of the key research findings from the report "The Family Justice Response to Domestic Abuse: a Six Country Empirical Study of the Experiences of Survivors, Judges, Lawyers and Court-Appointed Experts" relating to the usage of human rights arguments.

Although there was a general consensus amongst stakeholders across all groups and jurisdictions that human rights were relevant and helpful, they were viewed as background context rather than an active tool within proceedings. Moreover, a large number of stakeholders across the jurisdictions, acknowledged that the rights of survivors were rarely specifically cited by lawyers in their arguments, even though these rights were clearly relevant.

In England and Wales there was a general view amongst professional stakeholders that human rights law was reflective of good practice that was sufficiently provided for in domestic legislation. The use of human rights was therefore felt to be unnecessary. However, there was evidence of a lack of knowledge on its applicability amongst some lawyers and amongst the judiciary. For some lawyers, that meant that, depending upon which level of court they were before, making human rights arguments was largely pointless.