Rape Crisis has a vision of a South African criminal justice system that supports and empowers rape survivors in all of its interventions. Until such time as this vision becomes a reality we provide that support and empowerment. We believe that the rape survivor is the key to a successful conviction and that her empowerment is based on safety, respect, support and the ability to make informed choices as she embarks on this difficult and challenging journey.
Our mission is to act as a bridge between rape survivors and the system so that:
- more survivors report rape,
- the number of rape incidents decrease,
- survivors experience reduced secondary trauma within the system and
- the conviction rate of rapists increases thus providing a deterrent to rape.
Our work would not be complete without also acting as bridge between the rape survivor and the community in order to reduce the stigma of rape, to challenge myths and stereotypes about rape and to increase the support available to survivors.
We aim to achieve our mission through coordinated action between our three main programmes: (1) counselling, crisis containment and court support directly to survivors, (2) training and awareness programmes to civil society organisations, government partners and community groups and (3) advocating for law reform with partners in the sector.
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