Debate contribution: Strategic Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls: Implementation

Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on 26 February 2024.

MLA

Ms Diane Forsythe

Party at the time

Democratic 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 4230641

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I will speak on the devastating impact of violence against women and girls. Across the United Kingdom, the police receive a domestic abuse call every 30 seconds, yet it is estimated that less than 24% of domestic abuse crime is reported to the police. Most women do not call the police following the first time they are abused; they usually have been abused a significant number of times before they contact the police. Violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland is very real. As detailed in the motion, it is horrific that, on average, every three months, a woman is murdered here. In this Chamber, women are in the minority, representing just one third of our Members. While that is an improvement in representation, the lack of female MLAs for so many years has meant that Northern Ireland has fallen behind on many important issues. We lack strategies on childcare, on women's health and on violence against women and girls. Women have been left behind because they were not in the room when the decisions were being made, and it is our responsibility now to make that right. The lack of strategies and laws to define domestic abuse offences as criminal has shaped behaviour in society, and the suite of new legislation brought in in the previous mandate was much needed and has already had a significant impact in this area. The Justice Minister, the Justice Committee and the all-party group on domestic and sexual violence all played important roles in that change, along with the many stakeholders that serviced those. As the new chair of that all-party group, I am committed to supporting the delivery of more and look forward to working with the many Members across the Chamber who are also committed to working on that all-party group. The deep-rooted misogyny in society is a cause of this violence. The attitudes to, behaviours toward and treatment of women need to change. From subtle comments to sexual harassment, stalking, upskirting, downblousing, physical abuse and coercive control: where does it stop? For some of us, it means being the victims of online abuse and deepfake harassment; a vicious weapon used to degrade and humiliate women. The escalation of these things often leads to violence and murder. I support the motion today for the urgent implementation of the strategic framework to end violence against women and girls. Every Department has a role to play, from lawmaking and enforcement in Justice; to healthcare and mental health support; to crisis homelessness for women who flee; and to schools, where child victims need support. The roll-out of Operation Encompass has already proved impactful on this. We need everyone on board. We need to change attitudes and educate society. I thank the co-design team and all involved in the hard work in bringing this so far to date. I also support the amendment, which condemns the inadequate funding levels provided by the Government for public services here. It is critical that the strategy to end violence against women and girls is allocated sufficient funding or it will become just another strategy on the shelf. In allocating funding to the strategy, I also call for the priority to be supporting and sustaining the voluntary and community groups delivering these support services and shaping the policy on these matters. It was a travesty that the Women's Aid Federation for Northern Ireland lost its core grant funding last year, as referenced by others. Funding that body and restoring this money should be a priority within this strategy. Where expert services exist and already support women who are the victims of domestic abuse, we should be securing their existence with multi-year funding. We also need to remember the victims and keep their names and their stories to the fore. Those were real women who were murdered. They were daughters, sisters, mothers, grandmothers and very dear friends from right across Northern Ireland who were viciously murdered, mainly by people whom they knew and trusted. They deserved better, and it is our responsibility to do better for them. We need to change attitudes in society, and we need to be brought into line with the rest of the United Kingdom on the issue.

We need to stop the count of dead women in Northern Ireland and work together to end violence against women and girls.

725 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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