Harriet Wistrich

Harriet Katherine Wistrich (born 1960) 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. She works for Birnberg Pierce & Partners in London. She was Liberty's Human Rights Lawyer of the Year in 2014. and founding director of the Centre for Women's Justice. 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.

Background Family Harriet Katherine Wistrich 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), The Politics of Transport (1983), and, with David M. Smith, Devolution and Localism in England (2014).

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).

Early life and education The Wistrichs married in 1950 and had three children. Matthew, born in 1957, was disabled and died when he was 14. Harriet was born in 1960 and Daniel in 1964. the children joined the Woodcraft Folk and lived in what Julie Bindel called a "liberal, upper-middle-class household". then 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. one of the UK's "most respected asylum and immigration law practices".

Career

Justice for Women 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. 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. 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. JFW awards the annual Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize to those raising awareness about violence against women and children.

Cases Wistrich joined Birnberg Peirce & Partners in 2002. two female detainees in Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre who alleged sexual assault by staff, eight women affected by the UK undercover policing relationships scandal, and two women who were attacked by John Worboys, a serial rapist; they successfully sued the police for having failed to investigate their complaints. Wistrich also represented the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot and killed by police in London in July 2005.

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".

Books Her 2024 book Sister in Law: Shocking true stories of fighting for justice in a legal system designed by men was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction in 2025.

Selected works (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. (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. (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.