The Links Group attended a meeting To End Violence Against Women and Girls hosted by the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Lilian Seenoi-Barr. Held in the stunning surroundings of the Guildhall in Derry on Monday 20th January, the meeting was most ably chaired by Professor Marie Breen-Smyth.
A spate of attacks on women in the city and district led to a Special Council meeting in November 2024, where elected members fully endorsed 10 key actions presented by local women’s groups. These sought support from the Council to work proactively to establish and implement a number of actions to enhance safety measures to ensure women and girls feel safe in all public spaces.
This included a proposal to host a town hall meeting to look at how society can tackle the issue of Violence Against Women and Girls, what can be done to promote awareness, and highlight the available support.
Four panels provided perspective to the public audience. The evening began with powerful accounts from four survivors on the Lived Experience panel, who bravely told their stories of abuse, violence and murder; with tremendous impact.
The Community & Voluntary Sector panellists included representatives from Foyle Women’s Aid and the Foyle Family Justice Centre, Dove House, Women’s Centre Derry and Foyle Women’s Information Network; the message being the need to advocate for collaborative working to ensure the creation of lasting and positive change in this field.
Next up were the representatives from the Probation Board NI, the NI Housing Executive, who followed the area Chief Superintendent of the PSNI as the Statutory Sector panellists. It was heartening to hear the work that these groups are proactively engaging in to protect, educate and support women and girls in this area.
The final panel had female members of 5 political parties speaking of their personal commitments to ending violence against women and girls, stressing the importance of education, with this beginning with children in homes and schools.
A robust question and answer session followed, and at this, Mayor Seenoi-Barr made a commitment to making Derry City and Strabane a zero-tolerance city when it comes to violence against women, saying, “We’ve had enough as women and we’ve had enough as a community. It is now time we step up our actions and start delivering for women in this city and district” (BBC News).
More details and photos can be found from Derry Now here and here.
We thank Derry City and Strabane District Council for allowing us to use the EWAG ‘Hand-Up‘ graphic.
The Links Group look forward to working in partnership with organisations to provide support and training about the link between the abuse of animals and the abuse of people and to continue to play our part in Ending Violence Against Women and Girls.
