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Harriet Wistrich

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Harriet Wistrich
Wistrich in 2016
Born
Harriet Katherine Wistrich

1960 (age 63–64)
Hampstead, London, England
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Occupation(s)Solicitor, writer
OrganizationCo-founder of Justice for Women
Known forLaw reform
MovementRadical feminism, lesbian feminism
PartnerJulie Bindel
Parent(s)Enid and Ernest Wistrich

Harriet Katherine Wistrich (born 1960)[1] is an English solicitor and radical feminist who specialises in human-rights cases, particularly cases involving women who have been sexually assaulted or who have killed their violent partners.[2][3] She works for Birnberg Pierce & Partners in London.[4] She was Liberty's Human Rights Lawyer of the Year in 2014.[2]

Wistrich is co-founder of Justice for Women, the feminist law-reform group,[2][5] and founding director of the Centre for Women's Justice.[6] She has written for The Guardian and is the editor, with her partner Julie Bindel, of The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys (2003).

Background

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Family

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Harriet Katherine Wistrich[1] was born in Hampstead to Enid (d. 2020) and Ernest Wistrich (d. 2015), both secular Jews, who wed in 1950. Enid became Reader in Politics and Public Administration at Middlesex University (1979–1995), and thereafter Visiting Professor of Political Science.[7] She had been a Labour councillor (for the Priory ward of Camden Council 1965–1968 and 1971–1974) and chair of the Greater London Council Film Viewing Board in the 1970s. Her publications include "I don't mind the sex, it's the violence": Film Censorship Explored (1979),[8][9] The Politics of Transport (1983), and, with David M. Smith, Devolution and Localism in England (2014).[citation needed]

Ernest was originally from the Free City of Danzig; he attended boarding school in Brighton before moving to the UK permanently shortly before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Like his wife, he became a local Labour councillor (for the Swiss Cottage ward of Camden Council 1971–1974), and was a parliamentary candidate. He served as director of the European Movement from 1966 and was appointed CBE. He was the author of The United States of Europe (1992).[10]

Early life and education

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The Wistrichs married in 1950 and had three children. Matthew, born in 1957, was disabled and died when he was 14. Harriet followed in 1960 and Daniel in 1964.[8][10] Raised as secular, non-kosher and non-Zionist,[11] the children joined the Woodcraft Folk and lived in what Julie Bindel called a "liberal, upper-middle-class household".[8] His upbringing notwithstanding, Daniel moved to Israel when he was 23 and became a Hasidic Jew.[8]

Wistrich went to Oxford University, where she became a feminist, came out as a lesbian, and graduated with a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After Oxford, she and a friend hitchhiked around the country looking for a city they could make their home. They chose Liverpool, where Wistrich became involved in film-making before deciding to study law.[2] She took a two-year law conversion course and completed her legal practice course in 1995 at the University of Westminster in London. In 1997, she qualified as a solicitor after training with Winstanley Burgess,[12] one of the UK's "most respected asylum and immigration law practices".[13]

Career

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See also: Feminist legal theory

Justice for Women

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In 1991 Wistrich co-founded the feminist law-reform group Justice for Women (JFW)—with Julie Bindel and Hilary McCollum—to campaign against laws that discriminate against women in cases involving male violence against partners.[5][14] JFW had originally been set up as the Free Sara Thornton campaign to secure the release of Sara Thornton, convicted in 1989 of murdering her violent husband.[14][3][15] E. Jane Dickson wrote in The Independent in 1995 that the group was run by Wistrich, Bindel and their dog, Peggy, out of their home in North London.[3]

External videos
video icon Humphreys, Wistrich and Bindel
on the steps of the Old Bailey, 7 July 1995
(YouTube video, directed by Pratibha Parmar)

One of JFW's earliest cases was that of Emma Humphreys, who had been convicted of murder after killing her violent pimp boyfriend in 1985, when she was 17. In September 1992 she wrote to JFW from prison asking for help, and with Wistrich's and Bindel's support, she successfully appealed the conviction, claiming long-term provocation. News reports from 7 July 1995 (right) show the three women leaving the Old Bailey after the judges ordered that Humphreys be released. Wistrich told a press conference that the case had been "a miscarriage of justice on a par with that of the Guildford Four and Judith Ward".[16][2]

Three years later, Wistrich and Bindel found Humphreys dead in bed at her home from an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.[2] Based on Humphreys' diary, which was found only after her death, they co-edited a book, The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys (2003).[17] JFW awards the annual Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize to those raising awareness about violence against women and children.[2][18]

Cases

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Wistrich joined Birnberg Peirce & Partners in 2002.[12] She has represented several women in successful appeals against murder convictions, including Stacey Hyde, Christine Devaney, Diane Butler, and Kirsty Scamp,[6] and other litigants in high-profile cases. The latter include Jane Andrews, who was released on licence in 2015,[19][20] two female detainees in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre who alleged sexual assault by staff,[21] eight women affected by the UK undercover policing relationships scandal,[22] and two women who were attacked by John Worboys, a serial rapist; they successfully sued the police for having failed to investigate their complaints.[23] Wistrich also represented the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot and killed by police in London in July 2005.[24]

In 2016 she became founding director of the Centre for Women's Justice, a charity that seeks to "hold the state accountable for failures in the prevention of violence against women and girls".[6] Nick Cohen has called her "the best feminist lawyer I know".[25]

Selected works

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  • (2015). "Gayle Newland behaved no worse than rogue undercover police officers". The Guardian, 17 September 2015.
  • (2015). "New rape guidelines are welcome – if they’re actually followed". The Guardian, 29 January 2015.
  • (2009). "Jean Charles de Menezes". Socialist Lawyer. 51, January 2009, 12–14. JSTOR 42950312
  • (2008) with Frank Arnold and Emma Ginn. "Outsourcing Abuse: The use and misuse of state-sanctioned force during the detention and the removal of asylumseekers". Birnberg Peirce & Partners, Medical Justice and the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns.
  • (2003) with Julie Bindel (eds.). The Map of My Life: The Story of Emma Humphreys. London: Astraia Press. ISBN 978-0954634100
  • (1988) with Lynn Alderson. "Clause 29: Radical Feminist Perspectives". Trouble & Strife, 13: 3–8.
  • (1988). "The Use and Misuse of Identity Politics", in D. Harway (ed.) A Word in Edgeways: Jewish Feminists Respond. London: Jewish Feminist Publications, 22–29.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Harriet Katherine Wistrich - The Law Society". solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Gupta, Rahila (12 January 2015). "Women defenders of human rights: the good, the great and the gutsy" Archived 7 April 2020 at the Wayback Machine. OpenDemocracy
  3. ^ a b c Dickson, E. Jane (15 September 1995). "Sisters to the death". The Independent. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022.
  4. ^ Laville, Sandra (2 July 2014). "Women duped by Met undercover officers win high court ruling", The Guardian.
  5. ^ a b "Justice for Women", justiceforwomen.org.uk.
  6. ^ a b c "Harriet Wistrich" Archived 4 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Centre for Women's Justice.
  7. ^ Smith, David Michael; Wistrich, Enid, eds. (2008). "Notes on Contributors". Regional Identity and Diversity in Europe: Experience in Wales, Silesia and Flanders. London: The Federal Trust for Education & Research. vii.
  8. ^ a b c d Bindel, Julie (9 August 2008). "First person". The Guardian, 10 August 2008.
  9. ^ "One Week With John Gulliver – Enid and Ernest Wistrich celebrate 50 years of marriage", camdennewjournal.com, 9 September 2010.
  10. ^ a b Wistrich, Harriet (12 June 2015). "Ernest Wistrich obituary". The Guardian.
  11. ^ Thomlinson, Natalie (2016). Race, Ethnicity and the Women's Movement in England, 1968–1993. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 114.
  12. ^ a b Rice, Anita. "Lawyer in the News", The Law Society Gazette, 9 November 2007.
  13. ^ Rozenberg, Joshua (29 May 2003). "The asylum lawyer who is seeking a refuge". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  14. ^ a b "Introduction", Justice for Women, Newsletter, Summer 2006.
  15. ^ Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2000). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. London and New York: Pinter. 459.
  16. ^ "Emma Humphreys – An Inspiring Legacy", directed by Pratibha Parmar, courtesy of YouTube, 12 November 2009; 00:00:14 for the Old Bailey; 00:01:34 for the date Humphreys wrote to JFW; and 00:02:04 for Wistrich comparing the case to the Guildford Four and Judith Ward.
  17. ^ Bindel, Julie (23 July 2008). "This one's for Emma". The Guardian.
  18. ^ "Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize", emmahumphreys.org.
  19. ^ Cooke, Rachel (30 January 2001). "Snap decisions". The Guardian.
  20. ^ "Killer ex-royal dresser Jane Andrews to be released", The Daily Telegraph. 21 May 2015.
  21. ^ White, Alan (16 September 2013). "Yarl's Wood: An object lesson in how evil happens". New Statesman.
    Harriet represented a woman with mental health issues known as Annie. Annie had made a complaint of indecent assault against her MP Mike Hancock. After all evidence was gathered the case was due to be heard in the High Court, however in mid June 2014 Mike Hancock made an undisclosed out of court settlement.

    Tringale, Daniela (2014). "Is the IPCC fit for purpose?: Daniela Tringale on the Independent Police Complaints Commission". Socialist Lawyer, 66: 32–35. doi:10.13169/socialistlawyer.66.0032

  22. ^ Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis v DSD and NBV and Alio Koraou v Chief Constable of Manchester [2015] EWCA Civ 646.
    Evans, Rob (15 August 2014). "Police forced to name undercover officers who duped women". The Guardian.

    "Letter from Harriet Wistrich, Solicitor, Birnberg Peirce & Partners, to the Chair of the Committee, 4 July 2013", House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee.

  23. ^ Dil & Ors v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2014] EWHC 2184 (QB) (2 July 2014)

    Laville, Sandra (28 February 2014). "John Worboys victims win Met police compensation claim", The Guardian.

  24. ^ Wistrich, Harriet (13 December 2008). "Verdict on a whitewash". The Guardian.
  25. ^ Cohen, Nick (14 September 2013). "Yarl's Wood affair is a symptom, not the disease", The Guardian.
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