New Zealanders Stand Up to Rape Culture

Over the past weekend, thousands of people in New Zealand took to the streets to protest a culture that doesn’t take rape seriously. The public backlash has intensified over the past few weeks since an investigation exposed a group of teens calling themselves “The Roast Busters”. After the news of the Roast Busters began to spread, many New Zealanders were horrified that their society allowed this type of “rape club” to flourish.

The protesters are campaigning for Rape crisis centres to be adequately and sustainably funded, educational programmes set up focussing on rape prevention and awareness, police to put measures in place to allow for better support of survivors and the Law Commission report into pre-trial and trial processes for sexual assault victims to be reinstated immediately.

“There have been a lot of cutbacks to the crisis services. They’re desperately underfunded, and when we’re talking about one in four women being affected by sexual violence, and one in eight men, we’re talking about something that is nothing less than a national health crisis,” Organiser Jessie Hume pointed out. “It’s a public health crisis and it needs to be addressed.”

Not only this, but protesters are calling out for a change in the mindset of people who blame victims, not the perpetrators.

This type of public health crisis isn’t limited to New Zealand. On a global scale, sexual violence has reached epidemic levels, affecting an estimated one in three women around the world.

But the people of New Zealand have had enough, and they have decided that change must be made.