5 November 2026
The United Kingdom violated the
rights of a young woman prosecuted for allegedly making a
false rape accusation, the UN
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) has found. The private prosecution was
initiated by the man she had accused of rape and
subsequently taken over by the UK public
prosecutors.
E.F. was 22 when she reported to police
that she had been sexually assaulted by A.P. She had been
diagnosed with bipolar disorder and told police that she
believed she had been drugged. Following initial
investigation, police decided not to prosecute A.P. for
rape, stating that there was no realistic prospect of a
conviction.
A.P. then brought a private prosecution
against E.F., a procedure under UK law that allows a private
individual to initiate criminal proceedings, accusing her of
perverting the course of justice by making a false rape
allegation. After receiving a summons from Westminster
Magistrates’ Court, E.F. experienced a relapse of her
mental health condition. The proceedings also stripped her
of anonymity protections as a rape complainant and severely
affected her access to support services. Her counselling
sessions were not only reduced but she was warned against
discussing matters related to the case during those sessions
as it could compromise her testimony.
Several months
later, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) took over the
case. E.F.’s lawyers had asked the CPS to intervene to
discontinue the private prosecution, but CPS instead decided
to proceed. The prosecution relied largely on evidence
gathered on behalf of A.P., while E.F. had never been
interviewed by police about the allegation that she had made
a false report.
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Three days before her trial was due to
begin, E.F. took her own life. Following her death, her
father repeatedly sought an independent examination of the
authorities’ actions leading up to her death.
He
subsequently brought the case before the Committee, alleging
the UK authorities had subjected his daughter to
gender-based discrimination and revictimization and denied
her equal access to justice.
In its decision
published today, the Committee found that the UK’s legal
framework, which allowed an alleged perpetrator to initiate
criminal proceedings against a rape complainant, without
effective safeguards from the outset, could
disproportionately affect women and discourage victims from
reporting sexual violence. It concluded that E.F.’s
treatment amounted to indirect discrimination and that the
UK had failed to exercise due diligence to protect her from
discrimination and revictimization.
“Legal
mechanisms must not have the effect of silencing or
paralysing survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and
creating a climate of self-censorship for fear of being
prosecuted, especially when charges of perverting the course
of justice can shift a survivor to the role of a
defendant,” said Committee member Rangita de Silva de
Alwis.
The Committee also found that, when the CPS
took over and continued the prosecution, it failed to give
sufficient weight to E.F.’s situation as a rape
complainant living with bipolar disorder and to the
potential cumulative harm caused by the proceedings. It
concluded that continuing the prosecution discriminated
against E.F., violating her rights to equality before the
law and effective access to justice under the Convention
on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women.
“Litigation should not be allowed to
exploit power imbalances or turn criminal proceedings into a
means of intimidating women who report sexual violence,”
de Silva de Alwis said. “This decision goes to the essence
of CEDAW’s mandate on substantive equality and its
well-established jurisprudence on indirect
discrimination.”
The Committee called on the UK to
amend its legislation to ensure that prosecutions concerning
allegedly false reports of rape, sexual violence or other
forms of gender-based violence against women may only be
brought by public prosecuting authorities. It also urged
rigorous gender-sensitive assessments of such cases,
effective safeguards against retaliation and
revictimization, and appropriate training for prosecutors,
judges and law-enforcement officials.
The Committee
further recommended that the UK provide appropriate
reparation to E.F.’s father, including compensation for
material and moral harm, and expunge E.F.’s name from
judicial records of the prosecution. The UK is requested to
report back within six months on measures taken to implement
the Committee’s
recommendations.
