Collaboration with HerEthical.AI
We are thrilled to announce our collaboration with HerEthical.AI, a start-up that specialises in providing guidance and practical machine learning help to the police and third sector organisations. Their focus is on reducing intimate partner crime and gender-based violence. Their team of experts has extensive criminological knowledge and practical experience in developing AI solutions, with a variety of backgrounds, providing a diversity of views and approaches.
Our Shared Vision
Riverlight’s campaign, "In the Judge's Words," has been shedding light on the dehumanising language and attitudes that survivors often face in court. We conducted research through collecting first-hand accounts from survivors who recount appalling statements made by those intended to uphold justice and protect the vulnerable. The findings from this campaign are deeply disturbing. Examples include judges minimising or dismissing abuse as not being "that bad," insinuating that domestic violence is a "50/50 thing," and even stating that a victim had “goaded” the perpetrator into strangling her. The treatment of abuse survivors documented in this campaign represents a violation of their fundamental rights to a fair hearing as guaranteed by Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 6 has direct legal force in the UK through the Human Rights Act 1998, which applies its fair trial protections to all civil proceedings, including family law cases. Core requirements under Article 6 include having an independent and impartial decision-maker, as well as a hearing which is fair and free from bias.
The appalling statements show judges dismissing evidence, mocking survivors' accounts, questioning their credibility without basis, and creating a biased, intimidating environment. This undermines the ability of victims/survivors to properly engage and participate in the legal process. The judges' dehumanising language and attitudes leaves them feeling like the judge is an extension of their perpetrator rather than an impartial arbiter of justice. Survivors reported to us that they felt abused by the system itself. (For further details, please read our campaign report which you can find on our campaign page).
HerEthical.AI aims to take this initiative further by using technology to make a tangible difference. They are crowdfunding to help survivors purchase their court transcripts, which will then be used to develop a large language model that can:
a) summarise court cases
b) identify and extract victim-blaming and misogynistic language
Why?
This will generate evidence highlighting the bias and discrimination survivors face, and can be used to increase the transparency of family court proceedings, and provide evidence for why transparency and accountability is needed.
Provide a data-driven foundation for advocating changes in judicial practices and attitudes: in particular Comprehensive Mandatory Training for the judges/magistrates on Domestic Abuse/Trauma and Stronger Accountability Measures.
Create a scalable method to analyse large volumes of court transcripts, potentially revealing broader patterns of victim-blaming/misogynistic language or behaviour.
How can you help? You can support this initiative through donating
With your donations we could mark a significant step towards achieving a more equitable legal system and trigger the necessary change to make the court rooms a safe space for victims/survivors, not a place where they are re-traumatised. No further survivors should experience the devastating experience of being mocked, belittled and humiliated in the very place meant to safeguard them. A system that fails to uphold the fundamental human rights of abuse victims and survivors is a system that has lost all credibility and moral authority.
Your contribution, no matter how small, helps us fight for those who have been silenced, give hope to those who have lost faith in the system and create a legal landscape that truly serves and protects all members of our society.
You can donate here to the crowdfunder: Support Abuse Survivors in Accessing Court Records - a Community crowdfunding project in London by herEthical AI (crowdfunder.co.uk)
