Debate contribution: Ending Violence against Women and Girls

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 14 April 2026.

MLA: Mrs Naomi Long
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 14 April 2026
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Heading: Ending Violence against Women and Girls
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5482324

Text

I have introduced a diverse range of measures aimed at addressing sexual offending and coercive control and domestic abuse, and further measures are planned that will, I believe, tackle online and technologically aided abuse. I recognise, however, that legislation alone will not bring an end to the violence and abuse that exists in our society, and I have said that many times in the Chamber. We need a cultural shift in our community. I am absolutely committed to playing my part in protecting women and girls from harm through the law and in recognising new types of harm and creating new offences. Although it is good that we can do this, it is not good enough to be able to tackle violence and take people through the courts whenever harm has occurred. We have to focus on the prevention of that harm. There is no short-term solution to tackling the complex issues around that. Addressing abusive attitudes requires sustained, cross-departmental approaches with an emphasis on preventative actions. I am committed to and have consistently been working with others to ensure that we, along with other stakeholders, can tackle the drivers of abuse and violence. Part of that is not allowing our concern about violence against women and girls to be weaponised in a way that makes other minority groups in our society more vulnerable to abuse. This is about tackling a very serious crisis that our society faces. We need to work together as a community and across the community, irrespective of race, religion, creed, sexual orientation or how people identify their gender, to ensure that our women and girls are kept safe and that our young men and boys are educated in a constructive and positive way about what it is to be a good man, because, sadly, whilst women and girls are the focus of the campaign, they are not the problem.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.04 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.82).
The text criticises or condemns the framing or division (0.51).
Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.

This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.

Jev’s structured answers

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.07	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.02	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.02	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.03	No
Controversy escalation	0.05	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.82	Yes
Overall judgement	0.04	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing	0.49
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it (chosen)	0.51
Adopts it	0.00

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues	0.64
Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups	0.36
No identity-related subject	0.00
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00
Parades, bonfires and commemorations	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:18 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification