Stopping violence against women

Madam, - Twice in just over a month Kevin Myers has attacked Amnesty International's campaign Stop Violence Against Women.

Madam, - Twice in just over a month Kevin Myers has attacked Amnesty International's campaign Stop Violence Against Women.

Inexplicably, and shamefully, too many of us stand idly by while a human rights scandal that we can stop continues. Taboo, cultural consent, ignorance, acquiescence, and heartbreak all conspire to silence the majority. Violence against women is systematic, endemic and universal. It happens all over the world, in countries at war and at peace, in faraway places and at home, to rich and poor women, young and old women, to girls, in secret and in public.

The facts are that women in Asia and the Middle East are killed in the name of honour, with 15,000 dowry deaths in India alone every year. Over 120 million girls worldwide have suffered genital mutilation in the name of custom.

We know from the positive reaction to our campaign, which began last month, that many men are not in denial about the reality, and understand the dimensions of the crisis. They know that in many countries law, policies and practices discriminate against women, denying them equality with men, and making them vulnerable to violence.

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They know too that one in five women in Ireland who have been involved in intimate relationships with men have suffered serious violence at the hand of a partner or former partner. In 2002, of 10,248 incidents of violence in the home recorded by gardaí, 91 per cent of offenders were male and 92 per cent of complainants were female.

The Council of Europe reports that violence against women is the greatest cause of death and injury in women between the ages of 16 and 44.

These men know that the debate is not about whether or not this is happening, but how best to stop it. How to stop armed groups using rape as a tactic of war to defeat and humiliate the enemy, how to redress the attack on women's and men's human rights in the context of the "war on terror", and how to prevent the proliferation of small arms.

Groups in Ireland which provide crisis and support services to women experiencing violence in the family are overwhelmed by demand, and the Government is failing to meet its obligations to protect women in their homes. Each year there are 11,000 calls to the Women's Aid helpline from battered women/girls.

The purpose of our campaign is not to portray women as victims and stigmatise men as perpetrators; it is to condemn the act of violence itself. That will require all of us to change. Violence against women will end only when each one of us, men and women, is ready to make that pledge: not to do it, or permit others to do it, or tolerate it, or rest until it is eradicated. - Yours, etc.,

COLM Ó CUANACHÁIN, Secretary General, Amnesty International Irish Section, Dublin 2.