Sir, – Rape Crisis Network Ireland very much welcomes Minister for Justice Helen McEntee's commitment that the imminent Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence is to take a zero-tolerance approach ("McEntee says gender-based violence strategy will have 'zero-tolerance' approach", News, January 16th).
We urge that this extends to children’s education. As we have seen, our society already provides comprehensive training in sexism and gender inequality. This training begins as soon as socialisation starts and is well developed by the time children reach second-level schools.
It is a matter of hope for us that the conversations that have been happening over the past week have been almost wholly constructive of a zero-tolerance approach.
We hope the third strategy will take this lead from the public mood and address the appalling vista of there being no national policy to combat sexual harassment in schools while the prevalence of harm is so normalised it is hard to grasp.
Every school community must have explicit zero tolerance of sexual harassment and violence which proactively shapes a safe learning environment, responds to victims, perpetrators and the community appropriately and fosters equality.
Such a policy is essential to challenge and reverse our culture of misogyny and sexism. Not having one is to be passive in the face of the unacceptable. This is not tolerable. – Yours, etc,
Dr CLIONA SAIDLEAR,
Executive Director,
Rape Crisis Network Ireland,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – In her letter (January 18th), Sarah-Anne Cleary compares the known statistics of the number of women murdered in Ireland to other countries to demonstrate how “the number of homicides against women in Ireland is among the lowest in the world”.
I have worked in the area of responding to domestic sexual and gender-based violence for 30 years and this is the first time I have witnessed a collective awareness and awakening of the responsibility that has to be borne by all men and all women working together, to put an end to this heinous crime in our society. Women do not feel prisoners in their own homes because of media headlines. Women feel prisoners in their own homes because of some abusive men. Most men need to be made aware of how most women have to continually check themselves while walking alone or travelling alone because of that fear that most women know all about and most men know nothing about.
To say that the collective outpouring of grief and upset after the senseless murder of Ashling Murphy is hysteria is unacceptable. Ms Cleary asks the question as to “why doesn’t a single female politician or representative group have the courage to shout ‘stop’ to this hysteria?” Because of the collective awakening and heartfelt response to Ashling Murphy’s senseless murder, we now have to take this opportunity to build on the work and expertise that those of us working in this area have learned and work with Government and policymakers and our male and female politicians to shout “stop” to violence against women.
This will be done through appropriate age-related education programmes from pre-school to third level, proper funding of frontline services and responsibility for developing and delivering ongoing appropriate policies for the all-of-government response that is necessary to tackle this heinous crime in our society.
One murder of a woman is one too many. – Yours, etc,
ELLEN O’MALLEY
DUNLOP,
(Former CEO of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and
former chairwoman
of the National Women’s
Council of Ireland),
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.