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

Debate contribution by Mr Alex Easton on 26 February 2024.

MLA: Mr Alex Easton
Party at the time: Independent
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 4230683

Text

I support the motion and the amendment. We must realise that violence against women and girls is not only a violation of human rights but a multidimensional issue that goes across economic, social and political boundaries. We see misogyny manifested in physical, sexual, psychological and economic harm. The statistics are horrifying, and we must focus on the fact that they are the lived realities of numerous women and girls. Their lives, routines, hopes and ambitions are shattered by violence. Nobody has the right to harm, coerce, control, threaten or psychologically abuse a woman. I salute the work of Women's Aid in my North Down constituency. I have witnessed at first hand its outstanding work, but I am horrified by the fact that, year on year, its workload rises as the level of domestic abuse against women and girls also, sadly and depressingly, increases year on year. Each statistic represents a life devastated, impacted by violence and emotional abuse, and yet, 24/7, Women's Aid supports women and girls, including many children, on their journey. I salute the resilience of so many women and girls who have had the courage to speak out and who refused to suffer in silence, but we must go beyond policies and programmes to a societal shift in attitudes and behaviours. Let us commit today to challenging, through every avenue from education to legislation, every stereotype that perpetuates violence. Let us address, through a preventative strategy, the root causes of violence through educational awareness raising and make the protection of our women and girls key through access to services. I think here of the provision of safe shelter, legal aid and representation and psychological support in the short and long term.
Let me get on a wee bit. Let us ensure that, through prosecution, justice is done and seen to be done through robust legal frameworks, with tailored wrap-around support for the victim that includes healthcare, counselling and economic support to allow the rebuilding of lives. It also includes enhancing access to employment, vocational training, financial services and housing. Let us ensure that our response is survivor-centred and education-centred and compatible with international human rights standards. Let us ensure that, no matter how horrifying the numbers, the data in that area are robustly accurate in order to allow us, through research, to measure the prevalence and, indeed, the patterns of violence and let that research lead our public and policy response. As we go forward against the backdrop of disturbing research from the PSNI and Women's Aid, may we address and utilise existing good practice. Here I think of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women being taken alongside the sustainable development goals of addressing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. As we set our collective face against violence against women and girls, let us never stop, both in words and deeds, to be part of the solution, supporting survivors, allowing their voice to be loudly heard and pointing towards a society where women and girls in Northern Ireland can be free from abuse, violence and misogyny.

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

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