We are delighted to announce the shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize and Centre for Women’s Justice Awards.

We hope that many of you will join us for a virtual celebration of our fantastic nominees on 30th October. The event will be hosted by Samira Ahmed and you can register here for free.

2020 Shortlist

Action Breaks Silence

Action Breaks Silence is a community intervention group that delivers projects in schools to raise awareness of violence against women and empower young people to resist narratives about violence and gender roles. They currently run community-led programmes in the UK and South Africa and will be beginning a new project in India soon. They run separate groups for young men and women; teaching boys to stand up against the abuse of women and girls, and empowering girls through self-defence. 

Freya *

For years, Freya has used her own experiences to campaign on the issue of police failures to properly hold their own officers to account for domestic abuse. As well as raising awareness through social media, she has worked with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Centre for Women’s Justice to draw attention to how perpetrators of abuse are protected by police forces. The rise in the profile of this problem, and the soon-expected changes to police policy and procedure on this front are a testament to the impact of her work.

*_{Name changed to protect her anonymity.}

Coleen Dion 

Coleen’s campaigning and leadership have emerged from her membership of a group for Church Survivors of Sexual Abuse and her work supports and stands up for those who have experienced sexual abuse within the context of institutional Christianity. Excluded from ordination for being a lesbian, she has begun her own ministry work to create a healing space for other survivors. She speaks out about sexual violence against women and girls at protests, in Synods and in Churches. She is the founder of AGITATE and works for Church Action on Sexual Abuse Issues.

Zinthiya Ganespanchan

Zinthiya is the founder of the Zinthiya Trust, a Leicester-based charity supporting women to be free from abuse and poverty. During the national lockdown she raised awareness of the increased levels of violence against women that were particularly affecting Black and ethnic minority women, and women with insecure immigration statuses. She campaigned via local and national media appearances, writing articles and blogs, and social media awareness raising.

She has published a book on violence against women in conflict, and has further publication coming this year on cultural violence against women and girls. 

The Holly Project

The Holly Project opened in Telford in August 2018 and is the first specialist peer CSE support service in the country. All of the Holly Workers have experience of CSE themselves. It was the brainchild of local survivor Holly Archer, who campaigned tirelessly for an independent inquiry into exploitation and trafficking in the town after her own abuse drove her to attempt suicide. Since then, the service has supported nearly 100 people and delivered CSE training to hundreds of professionals in the area. 

The Holly Workers have travelled the country, delivering specialist training to a range of professionals to help them spot the signs of CSE by sharing their own lived experiences. They are passionate about helping people understand how diverse experiences of CSE can be, and the many different forms it takes. Crucially, they try to dispel the myth that so-called “grooming gang” CSE is only perpetrated by Asian men, with white victims. 

H.O.P.E.

H.O.P.E. was founded by Meena Kumari in 2008 to provide consultancy and training on violence against women. The group has played an important role in co-ordinating a specifically black, Asian and minority ethnic women-focused response to the increase in domestic violence during the lockdown. The regular meetings they host over zoom are attended by numerous key politicians, academics, activists and women’s sector practitioners. 

Inspired by the women present at these meetings, Meena has organised with other women activists and artists to create the #blackinDA #12Women #25Women digital art project.

Emily Hunt 

This year, Emily won a hard-fought battle to have the Crown Prosecution Service take seriously the abuse that she had been subjected to. In 2015 the CPS decided to take no further action in relation to an allegation of rape that Emily had brought to them. Eventually, they made her aware that the suspect in the case had taken a video clip of her naked and unconscious. The CPS said that there was nothing illegal in him filming her in this way and Emily was forced to bring a Judicial Review of their decision in order to have the law on voyeurism clarified. Although her campaigning has come at a personal cost it has not only clarified that this form of abuse is against the law, but stands as an example to the CPS that they cannot continue to dismiss women survivors unchallenged. 

Rosie Lewis 

Rosie is the Deputy Director of the Angelou Centre and manages the organisation’s services for Black women and girl survivors. She has been involved in social justice activism and arts organising for more than 25 years.

Through the Angelou Centre, Rosie has contributed to important research projects like the 2017 ‘Unequal Regard, Unequal Protection’ which focused on public authority responses to violence against Black and minority ethnic women in England. She has also given evidence to CEDAW and to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in order to ensure that the findings of both reflect the state response to violence against Black and minority ethnic women and girls. 

Sophie Campbell

Sophie is the author of Breakfast at Bronzefield, a memoir about her time in prison. The book shines a light on discrimination against women in the Criminal Justice System. She has also written for a number of journals and other publications.  Her writing challenges the stereotyping of criminalised women and shows how they are impacted by classism, sexism and racism. She makes a powerful case for treating women in prison as individuals and allowing them to speak for themselves.  

Ann Sinnott

As a Cambridge City councillor between 2014 and 2018, Ann was lead councillor on domestic abuse and sexual violence and founded the Cambridge Community Forum on Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence.

In 2018 she resigned from Cambridge City Council over their refusal to withdraw misleading guidance on exemptions under the Equality Act 2010. She set up the group Authentic Equity Alliance to promote and further the interests of women and girls and to campaign for the protection of single-sex spaces such as refuges. The group is in the process of seeking permission to Judicially Review the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the basis of its misleading guidance on the Equality Act exemptions.