Barriers in Accessing Justice: The experiences of 14 rape survivors in Uttar Pradesh, India

This report was published by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), a non-governmental organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI), a Lucknow-based human rights organisation. Released on September 28, 2020, the report highlights the barriers women face in registering complaints of sexual assaults.It considers 14 case studies of women who faced issues while filing FIRs (first information reports) with the police. The study, conducted during 2019-20, locates cases from seven districts of Uttar Pradesh, namely Aligarh, Amroha, Auraiya, Lucknow, Jhansi, Jaunpur, and Muzaffarnagar. Of the 14, 11 were rape cases and three were cases of gang-rape.All 14 case studies are based on first-hand accounts of the survivors and their caseworkers. The report concludes that in all cases, women survivors faced discrimination while registering the FIRs with the police. In some instances, the police did not register the complaint. Whereas in others, they registered the complaint only after the survivors and their representatives approached higher authorities. The report notes that such prolonged procedures added to the survivors’ existing trauma.The 124-page report consists of six chapters: Introduction (Chapter 1); Methodology (Chapter 2); Socio-Economic Profile of Survivors (Chapter 3); Case briefs (Chapter 4); Findings (Chapter 5); and Conclusions & Recommendations (Chapter 6).