The Istanbul Convention: Measuring the Scale of the Crisis of Violence against Women

Published: Thursday, December 15, 2016

Data collection and analysis around domestic and sexual violence are at crisis point in Ireland. The lack of this vital information shows that we are not doing everything we can to protect women and girls from some of the most serious and damaging crimes in this country. We know that at least one in five women will experience domestic or sexual abuse, but we don’t have a full understanding of the nature and extent of men’s violence against women. How do Traveller women, migrant women, young women, women with disabilities, experience domestic and sexual abuse? How many women are sexually harassed? How many women report their abuse to the Gardai? How many women go to court each year?

To mark the 16 Days of Global Action on Violence against Women, the Irish Observatory on Violence against Women which is chaired and convened by NWCI held a very successful and engaging conference in December 2016 in partnership with the European Parliament. The half day conference focused on the Istanbul Convention and in particular Article 11 of the Convention which places obligations on the Irish government around data collection and analysis and on research. The event  brought together key stakeholders to call on all relevant agencies to work together to increase our knowledge and understanding of these crimes and work towards ratifying the Istanbul Convention on violence against women.

Speakers included the Minister of State for Justice and Equality, Mr. David Stanton, Lynn Boylan MEP, Deirdre Clune MEP and Christina Olsen from the Violence against Women Section of the Council of Europe. There was a panel discussion chaired by Dearbhail McDonald with key agencies working in the area of data collection and analysis.