Member's statement: International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Member's statement by Mr Jon Burrows on .
- MLA
- Mr Jon Burrows
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 25 November 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5258645
Read the official Assembly record
Text
On International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women I acknowledge some of the suffering of women across the globe before turning to what is happening in Northern Ireland. I want to touch on the treatment of Christians in Nigeria at the moment, which gets little news coverage because it does not satisfy an ideology, in contrast with things that happen in the Middle East. We saw, just last week, more than 300 schoolchildren taken hostage, a terrible reminder of the 276 schoolgirls taken hostage by Boko Haram in Chibok in 2014. One hundred of those girls are still missing, and every one of them will have been subjected to sexual violence or will be living in constant fear of it. We never hear of protests, flag waving or emotion here about the plight of women in those countries. In Afghanistan, there is now an elimination of women from public life. Women are banned from education. Girls over the age of 11 are banned from education. Women are not allowed to teach boys in school, which has resulted in primary-school girls being withdrawn. Some women are not even allowed to have their voices heard in public. There are no protests, no campaigns, no passion, no commentary. If the Afghan cricket team were to come here, there would be no calls for it to be boycotted. It is as if that violence against women and girls does not exist. In Northern Ireland, we suffer from extremely high levels of violence against women and girls.
I heard Ms Egan outline the progress that has been made, but I just do not recognise that progress. We still have the slowest justice system in the UK, and that is the biggest enabler of domestic and sexual violence, because the perpetrators tactically delay their plea until the very last minute, hoping that the victim drops out because they do not have the emotional resilience to stay in a lengthy process that takes two or three years. However, there is no extra sentence at the end of it. We have the softest justice system. Only today it is in the news that a man who was convicted of three assaults on women in a park in Comber got a £100 fine for each assault. That is what you would get for a parking ticket. What motivation was there for the women to come forward, give evidence and take a day off work? We still have a criminal justice system that always seems to put the perpetrator first and the victim last, which has the greatest impact on our women. On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, I acknowledge the suffering across the globe —
— and in Northern Ireland.
457 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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