Seanad call for debate on violence against women

MARIE O’HALLORAN

A call has been made for a full debate in the Seanad on violence against women and gender based violence.

Independent Senator Jillian van Turnhout made the call in the wake of a discussion about the abduction in Nigeria of a reported 234 and up to 300 schoolgirls in the rural village of Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria by the militant Islamic extremist organisation, Boko Haram.

Ms van Turnhout said "there are lessons for Ireland to learn and actions that Ireland can take".

She said issues pertaining to “economic drivers, corruption, bad governance, state violence and external radical religious ideology sit side by side with prevailing acts of violence against women, gender based violence and breaches of women’s reproductive health and rights worldwide”.

She also highlighted the launch in Ireland by the Irish Family Planning Association of the global rights campaign "I decide".

It calls on world leaders to support women’s and girl’s basic sexual and reproductive rights. Ms van Turnhout said the campaign focused on four key rights of all women and girls across the world: “the right to decide what happens to their bodies and who to share their life with; the size of their family; whether to have children and, if so, when and how many children; and the right to decide their future.”

She said the campaign was calling for sexual and reproductive health rights to be central to the new development framework which replaces the Millennium Development Goals after 2015.

She said it “aims to collect one million signatures to present to UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, in the summer of 2015. Mine will certainly be one of those signatures.”

Earlier Independent Senator Feargal Quinn said Ireland was “unique in charging 23 per cent Vat on the first-time sales of works of art by living artists”. He said that in other countries including Britain, the rate charged was 9 per cent.