Welcome to our page for the Campaign Against the Sexual Violence Bill – our Innocence Protection Project

I’m Samira Taghavi, criminal defence barrister and I, like many criminal lawyers, fought against this bill as it went through Parliament. The bill (now act) contains two measures that – tragically – pose for innocent defendants (mostly men) an increased risk of jail.

I wrote several opinion pieces on the bill. My last piece is just below, with links to more pieces following, by me and other worried writers. If you would like to comment on our campaign, the articles on it, your experience of the justice system, or anything else of relevance, please do – in the box provided.

• Samira Taghavi: The Sexual Violence Bill – (More) Unintended Consequences (13/12 2021)

• Samira Taghavi: Surviving False Sexual Allegations – A Wife’s Story Part One (19/07/2021)

• Samira Taghavi: Surviving False Sexual Allegations – A Wife’s Story Part Two (20/07/2021)

• Samira Taghavi: Surviving a Sexual Prosecution in 21st Century Salem (23/06/2021)

• Samira Taghavi: Sexual violence bill could see more innocent Māori face jail (23/06/2021)

• Samira Taghavi: Irony and obfuscation in Sexual Violence Bill (17/02/21)

• Samira Taghavi: Rape law devised inside an echo chamber  (22/07/2020)

• Samira Taghavi: Ideology that will put innocent men in prison (07/07/2020)

• Samira Taghavi: Sexual Violence Bill puts right to free trial at risk (24/06/2020) and view Kiwiblog’s commentary on this article

• Auckland District Law Society criticizes Justice Minister for Book Launch (16/03/2023)

• A guest post by Bettina Arndt: Weaponising the criminal justice system against men (30/08/2021)

• Peter Joyce: An innocent man’s false sexual allegation nightmare (12/08/2021)

• Peter Joyce: Sexual Violence Bill – What does it change?

• Marie Dyhrberg: False sexual accusers face little risk (25/06/2021)

• Professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith: Faulty assumptions underpin Sexual Violence Bill (21/06/2021)

• Martyn Bradbury: Labour & Greens continue to push for sexual violence law that will criminalise men and uses vacuum cleaners to make their point (26/02/2021)

• Martyn Bradbury: Gerrymandering the legal system to find more men guilty of sexual assault isn’t justice (25/02/2021)

• Martyn Bradbury: Is a Spinoff threshold of guilt to convict more men of sexual assault actual justice? (18/02/2021)

• Marie Dyhrberg: Sex violence bill crosses the line on access to a fair trial (18/02/2021)

• Sasha Borissenko: Why Sexual Violence Bill’s attempt to fix law falls short (05/07/2020)