Derry and Strabane Council to host Special Meeting on Gender-Based Violence
The special meeting on gender-based violence was proposed by People Before Profit Councillor Maeve O’Neill at February’s full Council meeting of Derry and Strabane District Council.
The special meeting will have presentations from the Women’s Resource and Development Agency on their Feminist Recovery Plan and their initial findings of their research on Violence Against Women and Girls.
The Children’s Commissioner will also be invited to this meeting to present on the need for proper, age-appropriate, inclusive relationship and sexual education in our schools.
Speaking on the motion, Cllr O’Neill said,
‘Unfortunately, we have a crisis here in gender-based violence.
Stats show the north is the most dangerous place in Europe for women, with more domestic violence killings here per capita than anywhere else. That’s shocking.
Women have been let down by the state for far too long. Our bodies have been controlled and policed with the denial of reproductive rights. Policies from the state on the 2 child benefit cap, policies that have seen the massive levels of child poverty in the north, policies that do not support women after they have a baby, charging for childcare, are policies that impact women hardest.
There is still a gender pay gap, there is the mass commodification of women’s bodies and there are far few women in leadership roles.’
The motion also recognised the long struggle of women here in Ireland and around the world for rights, equality and recognition, and stated Council’s support and solidarity with all the actions that groups and activists will be holding locally to mark this year’s International Women’s Day.
Cllr O’Neill commended the feminist movement on the ground who have campaigned tirelessly for the inequality of women to be brought to the fore. She said, ‘I think of the women locally who have inspired generations of feminists, like the women who squatted in pump street for the first women’s aid refuge to support women and their families experiencing domestic abuse, the women involved in the anti-war movement to get Raytheon out of Derry, the women and feminists whom have campaigned for reproductive rights and have supported pregnant people to access abortion even when it was illegal, and the inspiring women involved in many social justice campaigns to make society a better and more just and equal place for everyone.’
The motion passed with unanimous support.
