The following are Specialist Advisers for this inquiry:
Dr Christine
Barter, Professor of Interpersonal Violence Prevention,
University of Central Lancashire
Professor Barter is Co-Director of the Connect Centre for
International Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm. Her
work has mainly focused on preventing VAWG including sexual
violence and exploitation, violence and abuse in young people’s
relationships, technology and Gender-Based violence, domestic
abuse and stalking. She has evaluated prevention and intervention
initiatives including RSE in secondary and primary schools. In
2016, she was the Specialist Adviser to the Women and Equalities
Committee on its inquiry into Sexual Harassment and Sexual
Violence.
Dr Hannah Bows,
Associate Professor in Criminal Law, University of Durham
Dr Bows is also the Deputy Director of the Centre for Research
into Violence and Abuse (CRiVA) and Chair of the British Society
of Criminology Victims Network. She has been researching violence
against women and girls for the last decade and has knowledge in
policy, law and research in relation to preventing VAWG. Her work
includes studies on extreme pornography, sexual violence at music
festivals, violence against women in public/private spaces,
technology and violence against women and sexual violence at
universities and the so called ‘rough sex’ defence.
Professor Shazia
Choudhry, Professor of Law, University of Oxford
Professor Choudhry was appointed Academic Fellow of the Inner
Temple from 2014-2017 and is now an Associate Fellow and was
elected as an Academic Bencher in 2020. Her research interests
lie in the fields of European and UK human rights law, violence
against women as a human rights issue and the effect of
rights-based reasoning in the law relating to children. Some of
her work has included giving evidence to the APPG on Domestic
Violence, working as a Specialist Adviser to the Joint Committee
on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill (2019) and to the Joint
Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights’ inquiry into Violence
against Women (2014-15). She has also advised the Council of
Europe and other international bodies on violence against women
and sits on the Crown Prosecution Service’s Violence Against
Women External Consultation Group.
Elaine Crory, Good Relations Co-ordinator at the Women’s Resource
and Development Agency, Belfast
For the past three years, Elaine has worked primarily on a
project called Raise Your Voice, which tackles sexual harassment
and sexual violence in communities in Northern Ireland. She works
alongside VAWG-focused organisations and others to advise the
Northern Ireland Government and other bodies on policy. She sits
on the Gillen Review Implementation Team to help campaign to
address persistent myths around rape and sexual offences.
