Debate contribution: Strategic Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls: Implementation
Debate contribution by Mr John Stewart on .
- MLA
- Mr John Stewart
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 26 February 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Strategic Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls: Implementation
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4230616
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I congratulate you on your new role, Mr Deputy Speaker; I do not think that I have spoken with you since you took the Chair. I also congratulate the Member for North Down on her maiden speech — it was very well done — and echo her words about Rachel Woods, who is a sad loss to the Chamber. I wish her well too. The Ulster Unionist Party supports the motion and the amendment. I thank everyone for bringing forward this important issue, which should have been tackled through a strategic framework before now. As we know and as has been mentioned, the process of setting out that strategic framework is well advanced. I chaired the TEO Committee during the last mandate. At one of the last meetings of that Committee, evidence was sought from the Women's Resource and Development Agency. I commend that organisation and the many thousands of people who completed the survey and took part in the consultation that helped us to formulate the strategic framework. Motions were tabled in the House in 2017 and 2021, and there was unanimity in all the responses on both occasions about how we should go forward in tackling the issue. The sad reality is that, were it not for the five years out of seven of political vacuum in this place, a strategy not only would have been in place but would have been well advanced and tackling the issue. Sadly, we are where we are. If any positive can be taken from not having a long-overdue strategy on tackling gender-based violence, it is that we can learn from models of best practice elsewhere, learning from what has worked badly, taking on board what has worked well across these isles and applying that to any strategy that we begin to roll out. We owe that to our women and girls. In the absence of any live strategy or strategic framework, I acknowledge the tireless and invaluable work of organisations such as the Women's Policy Group, the Cithrah Foundation, Women's Aid, the White Ribbon project and the many other groups and organisations across the country that dedicate their time to supporting women and girls, striving to end violence and raising awareness of the issues at all levels of our society. I also acknowledge the huge volume of work that has been carried out by Executive Office officials over many years. They have worked tirelessly to resolve the issue and put together a strategic framework, and they have brought forward all the responses that have been made to date. I look forward, as they do, I am sure, to seeing the strategic framework in place. As I said, in March 2021, a similar motion was debated in the House, and there was unanimity in the responses that day. During the debate, many Members discussed the critical issues around the violence, harm and abuse that women and girls continued to face and the need for a strategy to ensure that we protect women and girls and eliminate gender-based violence in Northern Ireland. That motion was discussed during the COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, violence and domestic abuse towards our women and girls did not disappear or reduce; they increased. As we move into a post-pandemic society, we must reflect on the things that were said. Statistics were quoted, and, regrettably, three years on, they are not the same but worse. We still have no strategy to end violence against women and girls. We have failed them. Between 2022 and 2023, the PSNI recorded 32,875 incidents of domestic violence here in Northern Ireland — an average of one every 16 minutes. Sadly, in 2021, when the issue was last discussed, the figure was one every 17 minutes. As we know, over one third of such incidents are not reported or recorded, which makes it even worse. The statistics show how important it is to have emotional support, counselling and referral support, such as that provided by Women's Aid Federation Northern Ireland, but such organisations must be properly resourced and funded, as Members have said. Our party met the Women's Aid Federation Northern Ireland in September, after it had reached out with concerns that its local government funding was due to end that month. Since then, Women's Aid has lost significant funding that helped to support women and girls who were victims of domestic abuse, harm and violence. A consideration in the strategic framework must therefore be to improve the support available to victims and ensure that support networks are adequately funded. We must start as we mean to go on and ensure that our youth are educated to be respectful towards one another. Educating our youth is necessary from nursery school onwards. Young people must be encouraged to respect and listen to others and to accept that violence towards any person, regardless of gender, is totally unacceptable. Our society must be educated through awareness campaigns. There needs to be change in the long-established societal attitudes towards domestic and sexual violence until the statistics reflect respect towards women and girls. I am encouraged that the Executive Office said that the strategy will be cross-departmental. It needs to straddle the Department of Justice, including probation services, the Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Department of Finance. I hope that the strategic framework will be laid out as soon as possible, allowing us to tackle this hugely important issue.
903 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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