Debate contribution: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

Debate contribution by Ms Connie Egan on 14 January 2025.

MLA

Ms Connie Egan

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

14 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Ending Violence Against Women and Girls

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4736235

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I stand today to make some of my first remarks in a debate in 2025. Despite it being the new year, we are unfortunately faced with the same problems. My colleagues and I are still filled with the same horror and concern at the epidemic of violence facing women and girls in Northern Ireland, which, in 2025, is still one of the most dangerous places to be a woman. The Gillen review has made good progress over recent years despite the stop-start nature of our government, and I commend the work of Justice Minister, Naomi Long, in enabling her Department to deliver on that. I was pleased to learn recently in a Justice Committee meeting that 195 out of 253 recommendations from the Gillen review have been actioned or partially actioned, with plans to bring forward much of the remaining needed actions by the end of the mandate. The Gillen review action plan was published in 2020 and, since then, for two years of that time, the Assembly was down. It is welcome that we are making the progress that we need to make on the issue. The motion deals substantively with two aspects of the Gillen review recommendations: pretrial jury education and the legal definition of "reasonable belief". I will respond to each of those separately in the limited time that I have. It is imperative that we put in place a legal definition of "reasonable belief" to create an increasingly victim-centred definition of consent in the law. The Gillen review made a series of recommendations on how to improve the current definition of "reasonable belief" in the Sexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 2008. I welcome the fact that, although this matter is complex and needs to be sensitively considered, proposals are planned to be developed by the end of the mandate. A more informed definition of consent is key if we are to ensure that our legislation is inherently victim-centred and trauma-informed. As the motion notes, the Gillen review also made recommendations on pretrial jury education. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that rape myths influence every stage of the criminal legislative process, and some individuals are likely to allow that to impact on their judgement while acting as jurors. Although it is crucial that there is some form of education, we must accept that a Minister cannot direct how the judiciary operates in the courtroom and that training for the judiciary is at the discretion of the Lady Chief Justice.

Thank you. Yes, I absolutely agree and align myself with those comments. Ultimately, we need a legal system that places victims at the centre. Hopefully, one thing that we can all agree on across the Chamber is that introducing pretrial education and reforming the definition of reasonable belief are steps that we can take to do so. I have very little time, but I will touch on the wider issue of violence against women and girls. It is endemic in our society, and we need a whole-society approach to tackle it. It is an issue not just for the Department of Justice; the ending violence against women and girls strategy recognises that we need cross-departmental collaboration and initiatives across the Executive, local government and in our communities. Since 2020, 25 women have been murdered in Northern Ireland, and evidence shows that 98% of women have experienced at least one form of violence or abuse in their lifetime. That has to stop, and we all need to work together to end it.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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