Ruth Coppinger
Dublin West · People Before Profit-Solidarity · Ireland
“Next Wednesday, the trial continues of the Ulm five, including the Irish citizen, Daniel Tatlow-Devally. A delegation of TDs and Senators, including me, will attend the trial in Stuttgart next week.”
“This man said of one woman that he would attach her to a concrete block. He said of another that he would set fire to her. Should this person be getting a pay off from the Army? No, of course, he should not. He should have been put on trial.”
“I have very little time left, but I want to put on record that the woman in question was abused by an Army officer using military equipment and surveillance technology, which is extremely scary. She made a complaint, which has never been pursued.”
“When is the victims of crime Act 2017 going to apply the Army? The Women of Honour have pushed for change so that if there is abuse within the Army there will, we hope, be mechanisms to deal with that, but what about women who are abused by Army personnel who are not in the Army?”
“This officer was involved in a GoFundMe campaign, where rapists' names were used as a joke by the various men who contributed to it. I do not think rape is funny and the Army should not either. That GoFundMe campaign was left up for a long time. Why is the Army a law unto itself in relation to gender-based violence?”
“The victim's belief is that the military prosecutor has evidence of a very dangerous man but for some reason, the Army does not seem to be concerned because it has not prosecuted him on those charges. Why would the Army not want to prosecute somebody? Are we at war or something? Why is it so secretive?”
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“Is it the Lowry lackies, the Government, or people who actually care about the Palestine solidarity movement? That is who. Who is more likely to really interrogate the Government on a whole range of issues? This is the Government preparing itself for unpopular decisions that it will have to take on water charges, cost of living, the triple lock, militarisation but today and next Wednesday, instead of Taoiseach’s questions, we will have Michael Lowry questioning the Taoiseach. Michael Lowry, I want to remind the Taoiseach, is the character he is doing all this for, who was found to be profoundly corrupt by a tribunal in a breathtaking fashion. Does the Taoiseach have any qualms whatever doing business with Michael Lowry?”
“He broke that promise like we have seen him break promises about the housing figures, on disability funding, free HRT and all the things that were promised before the election. It is important to bring home for the general public what this is actually about. This is the Government removing itself more and more from being challenged in a real way. Journalists are saying the bombs in Gaza are more important than what has happened. Who do you think is going to question the Taoiseach more about the bombs in Gaza?”
“It strikes me that the Ceann Comhairle is a woman who knows her own mind and took a decision yesterday, unfortunately, to co-operate with what was a very co-ordinated move not to allow Order of Business properly, to jettison Questions on Promised Legislation and so on. However, I want to move the focus back on the Taoiseach because he knew that these proposals were opposed by the Opposition and he took a decision to foist them without debate yesterday. What did he think was going to happen? Does he think any of this would have happened if there had been a debate yesterday? Do not forget that in January Deputy Martin was very anxious to get himself elected as Taoiseach and his party stood over there and made a promise to the Dáil that there would be consensus. Nothing would happen without consensus.”
“Today in my Leaders’ Questions, I wanted to raise the absolutely desperate situation in Palestine, the Government’s failure to even meet the UN special rapporteur in Leinster House last week and issues such as the special needs crisis, the health workers and so many other issues but today we have to come back to this again because of what happened yesterday. Comments have been made about the unpleasantness of the protest yesterday. I even heard some claims of misogyny which I found extremely cynical from one of the most male-dominated governments on the planet.”
“The UAE and the Saudis are fuelling and backing various forces. Neither side in this conflict has the interests of ordinary people at heart. We need the international so-called community to speak, push for a ceasefire to deliver humanitarian aid and to assist the ordinary people of Sudan to have peace and security in their country.”
“We have 1,600 doctors on the register of doctors, many of whom are leading consultants in our hospitals. Many others are engineers and so on. That community is trying to function while looking after their families and facing what is going on without any support or assistance. They see others who have been getting assistance while this turmoil is taking place. Western governments are not neutral in this situation. They cry crocodile tears but they are, for example, responsible for the RSF militia. They used that militia. The EU boosted it as part of a migration pact and paid security guards to keep people from coming to Europe. Imperialist powers and the Gulf states have enabled, through bogus compromises and power sharing arrangements with the butchers of Sudan, the quashing of dissent and bolstering of the counter-revolution.”
“It is because in December 2018 the people of Sudan rose up against a brutal dictator, al-Bashir, ending his almost 30-year rule. The regime plotted to form an interim civilian transition, which was unfortunately a huge mistake the people of Sudan were pressed to accept by outside forces, including the EU. That gave them time to regroup and organise and now there is a power struggle between two warring factions, Burhan and Hamedti, going on since 2023, in the middle of which the ordinary people of Sudan are caught. Where is the international urgency to end this situation and push for a ceasefire? The Minister for Foreign Affairs must intervene. We have in Ireland, by the way, a significant Sudanese community that has been here for 20 to 25 years.”
“We need the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs to speak up about what is happening in Sudan, where an absolutely horrific genocide is taking place. Some 12.4 million people have been forcibly displaced, more than half of whom are children. Some 24 million people need humanitarian assistance. Half of the population is food insecure or facing famine. Some 75% of healthcare is not functioning. There is a refugee crisis. War crimes are being committed by both the army and the militia, including mass killings, targeted executions and sexual violence and rape as weapons of war on women and girls. There is ethnic cleansing in Darfur against the non-Arab communities, especially the Masalit, and use of child soldiers. Why is this happening?”
“That would end the waiting list in Dublin 15. The Minister should be sitting down with councils, finding out what they will do to develop those land banks and reporting to the Dáil weekly and monthly. That is the only solution, ultimately, to the housing crisis. He should be finding that sort of information out. Church Fields is another land bank which is being developed slowly. The other one has been put on the long-term strategy. It should be a priority. That is why we need a State construction company to cut through all the red tape and bureaucracy, identify public land and use workers available to prioritise building homes rather than offices and commercial buildings. That is how we will get the teachers, nurses, therapists and essential workers we need to end so many of the problems we face right now.”
“It is not a substitute for building public housing but it was at least a way of saving people from being turfed out onto the street. How many local authorities has the Minister met since he got his job to find out what land they have available and their capacity to build social and affordable housing? I would be interested to hear the answer. The Land Development Agency already said there is a potential supply of up to 67,000 houses. That does not include loads of local authority land. In Fingal County Council, of which I was a member for a few months between the local and general elections, I tabled a motion on the greater Blanchardstown area. I would love if the Minister followed this up. There is one site there called Scribblestown-Elm Green. The council said it could supply 7,000 affordable and social homes on that piece of land.”
“The Government is proposing to render null and void the only shining light we had to give to anyone facing eviction because of sale of property. The tenant in situ scheme for eviction for sale of property was the only lifeline we could point people to. It is problematic because you have to get the landlord and the local authority to agree to it. What are TDs and councillors meant to say to people now who face eviction? What is the Minister's answer on that? There were shortcomings in the scheme; for example, there have been 16,531 evictions since late 2023 for sale of property yet there were only 2,500 people helped through this scheme. There should be a lot more. The other problem is intervention in the housing market which is a costly process. Houses are paid for at market rate. This is not the best way to resolve the housing crisis.”
“We represent the same constituency yet all the housing problems seem to come my way or the way of Sinn Féin, for example. They obviously do not go to the Minister's party because otherwise the Government would care. We are snowed under with the misery of the housing crisis. In Dublin West, for example, Hansfield Educate Together national school, which my daughter attended, asked parents on Facebook if they have any rooms because they cannot get teachers for the school. A children's class wrote to me from one of the schools in Dublin 15. I assume they wrote to all the TDs about the teacher crisis due to the housing crisis. In one school campus in Dublin 15 the summer before last, four teachers left because their leases were up and they were evicted.”
“I am asking the Minister to do what was done in the 1970s. I certainly will not apologise because we need social housing to be built on a massive scale. There is no other solution to end this housing crisis. I was in the Dáil over ten years ago. Housing was the huge issue then, but it seems to be so inconsequential to the Government now. I thought it was bad then but now it is unbelievable, in comparison. The Taoiseach said housing was not a central issue in the election campaign. That was his excuse for the Government basically telling lies to the population about the housing figures. Housing was the biggest issue in the election bar none. I represent a constituency in which there is also a Fianna Fáil representative and a Fine Gael representative.”
“The other thing is that the Taoiseach said he would go to the US and be honest, but he was not honest in that he deliberately foregrounded Donald Trump as being an agent of peace. Now we have seen a brutal attack on Gaza, leaving 400 people dead in the biggest single attack since 2023, and all I have heard from the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste has been very meek condemnation. The Taoiseach has not called it a war crime. You have not called out what happened. You can roll your eyes-----”
“The informal EU leaders' retreat in February 2025 focused on an increase in Europe's defence capabilities by 30%. It also discussed other issues of co-operation with the US and UK. I have heard the Taoiseach and other TDs in the Chamber today talk about the fact that we are living in a world that has becoming more brutal, more divisive, more militaristic and more nakedly imperialistic. However, the way to counter that is not for Europe to tool up and arm itself. In fact, some of the people who were supporting the naked imperialism in terms of Gaza are also constituent parts of the EU, namely Germany and France. All of these people are sending weapons and arms for the Israeli attacks on Palestine, for example.”
“I actually asked the Taoiseach before he went how he felt about dealing with a sexual predator like Donald Trump and this was the insult he delivered to the Government and to our people on St. Patrick's Day.”
“-----in the White House, two men found guilty by juries to be rapists. We had the sight on St. Patrick's Day of Conor McGregor representing this country's views. It was an insult to the country. Actually, it was an insult to the Government because he slated it. So much for the Taoiseach's diplomatic mission with Trump. It was an insult to women. When you normalise genocide and misogyny, this is what happens.”
“The topics discussed during the EU leaders' retreat included an arming up of Europe, and also relations with the US. I want the Taoiseach to comment on how he thinks his diplomatic mission went in the US. He said that Donald Trump was in pursuit of peace and then about 48 hours later he colluded with an horrific massacre in Gaza in which 400 people died. The Taoiseach smiled and nodded as Donald Trump said his favourite person from Ireland was Conor McGregor. Lo and behold, on St. Patrick's Day-----”
“In my view, this can only be done by fighting capitalism as a system that is perpetuating genocide. We need less Barbie and more bolshie. This is my message.”
“There is no way that capitalism can deliver equality for anybody, and it certainly cannot do so for women in the current period. The liberal era of reform and rights is completely gone. It has been declared well gone by the likes of Trump. Capitalism is now moving in much more violent and misogynistic direction. We have Trump, who has lauded sexual assault against women and who has intervened to free two sex traffickers who are leading the manosphere and spreading hate among young men. This is having a serious impact in some of the surveys we are seeing and the division of attitudes according to age and gender. It is very dangerous but it is all being allowed to happen. The liberal era is gone. We will have to fight for equality. We will have to demand our rights in this period.”
“International Women's Day has its roots in socialist feminism, far from the boardrooms that the Fine Gael TD spoke about earlier. It was Clara Zetkin, a socialist and feminist, who inaugurated it in 1910. It was taken up and became a rallying call for the rights of women against the system. In Ireland on this international women's day, ROSA, the socialist feminist movement, has organised marches against gender-based violence. We are delighted we are supported in this by many survivors of gendered violence who are demanding action on the ten-point plan the Dáil agreed last week. These marches will be in Dublin at City Hall, Limerick, Galway in Eyre Square, all at 1 p.m., in Cork at 12 p.m., Belfast and, hopefully, in other places also. People will gather to drive home the message.”
“It does seem like a bit of a pointless exercise, to be frank, to be making statements into the void but how and ever, we shall plough on. In regard to International Women's Day, far from the flowers and candy, in Italy there will be a general strike to coincide with International Women's Day, involving transport, education, healthcare and other workers. In Argentina, tens of thousands will again march against President Milei, who views abortion as aggravated homicide and has a very dangerous agenda. In Pakistan, it has been revitalised as a day against gender violence and honour killings. Across the US, while our Taoiseach goes to greet the predator-in-chief, millions will hopefully march against President Trump.”
“The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has said that one in four non-white people had experienced racism in the last 12 months while 31% had witnessed it happening to people they were with. More gardaí on the beat is not the answer because people from minority backgrounds have a real fear of how they are going to be treated by gardaí. The ICCL reports that 83% fear racial profiling or discrimination in their interactions with gardaí. In my own constituency, George Nkencho was the first black person to be shot and killed by gardaí. That is a real fear for a great many young black people in this society. That would not have happened and he would be alive today if he was white. There is absolutely no question that racial bias played a role in that and in the subsequent cover-up.”
“That is a very significant number of people in our community. I also represent a very diverse electorate and, in many meetings I have had with people from migrant and minority backgrounds, the fear in which they live has been very noticeable. Contrary to what some in this Dáil might say, the people who are most at risk from crime are people from migrant backgrounds. I had a meeting with Pakistani taxi drivers in my community. They have lived and worked in Ireland for over 20 years. They registered the fear they are feeling because there is now so much racism in society that, if anyone says anything to them and they respond, the whole situation will escalate. This applies to health workers as well. Hate crime increased by 12% in 2023. Some 60% of people from migrant backgrounds report that they have experienced hate or harassment.”
“I will first register that we are again here, months after the general election, to make statements. We need to move on. The Government is complaining about a lack of Dáil business. We are making statements into a void and nothing will actually happen afterwards. I live in a working class community where crime is an issue and I represent many communities where it is an issue. People certainly have the right to ring the Garda and get a response but we need a police force that is accountable and answerable to the community. This day last week, we had a debate on one of the biggest aspects of crime there is, violence against women, and there was very little interest from the Government benches. There are three Government Members here today. There was one here last week. Some 52% of women experience sexual violence.”
“It has been a year since the fateful referendum on disability, where disabled people chose to organise against that referendum to bring home the State's responsibility. What has the Taoiseach done in that year? I will just mention my own local area because of time constraints. Danu special school, the only special school in all of Dublin West, promised places to students for September 2024. Those students are still sitting at home right now. They were meant to start school last September but the building work has not started. This is what is happening with the Taoiseach's Government. It is pretending that places exist and the buildings have not even been built. There are no buildings, teachers or SNAs. I checked and a soil site investigator went there for a little visit yesterday. There is still no sign of those buildings.”
“Militaristic policy. It is proposed that Ireland's budget for military spending will eventually increase from €1.3 billion to €3 billion. The decision to drop the triple lock is coming at the expense of people on lower incomes, education, disability, housing, refuges for domestic violence, etc. Earlier, the Taoiseach bemoaned that we are living in a world that is becoming increasingly brutal, militaristic, violent and nakedly imperialistic. In that context, I ask the Taoiseach once again - this is our last chance - if he still intends to visit and greet Donald Trump, the chief proponent of this direction of the world right now, on St. Patrick's Day, thereby giving him a photo opportunity. This is a public bully who humiliated Zelenskyy, as we saw, over the weekend. He is a chauvinist. He has just freed two rapists.”
“I will say nothing of the fact that there is a task force in Dublin 15 on special education. The Minister has already demonstrated that her Department cannot plan educational provision in the area. This is yet another example and we want her to reverse this decision.”
“There are TDs in the area from the Minister's own party demanding the schools. This is not just the Opposition. There is unanimity that both locations need schools. If the Minister is telling parents they have to go to Tyrellstown from the Ongar catchment, which is a different catchment, does she have transport lined up? I have already sent her Department a group of parents who have no transport between these areas. They cannot get school transport and there is no bus link. The reality is that this is penny-pinching by the Minister's Department. There is no other reason. It will be a blow to Dublin 15 to cede that this school will move, because we need schools in both locations and we are sick, sore and tired of having to have public meetings and protests for mainstream schools.”
“The reality is that both areas need secondary schools. I will give the demographics. With all due respect, the Department of Education has had an inglorious history of misplanning educational need in this area and, I am sure, in many others. Ongar, where Ériu Community College is currently located, had the highest birth rate in 2024, according to the CSO. Some 32% of the population is under 18, so where are they to go to school? The only school in the area is at capacity. Fingal, overall, has the youngest population in the country, so there is going to be a massive need for schools in all locations. I know the need in Tyrellstown, which is an area in which my daughter went to school. It needs a school as well. That is the reality. We are asking the Minister to stop the penny-pinching. People should not have to campaign for schools.”
“I know the Minister is new to her brief so she may not be familiar with these locations. With regard to Ériu Community College, the Department of Education took an arbitrary decision to move the school from its temporary location to an area 8 km away until such time as it gets its permanent location. The Minister knows that in a suburban area of Dublin, that has a huge impact. I ask her to change that decision. That is a huge demand from the community.”
“We saw it here earlier in the debate when the Minister left for a press opportunity and left somebody else to deputise for him. Not one of the other Members of Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael-----”
“Many of the survivors who have put themselves on the line, have gone through so much trauma and were retraumatised in our legal system have committed to support those marches. I appeal to trades unions, women's organisations, community groups and everybody else to turn out on those marches that are called by ROSA International Social Feminists, of which I am a founding member and which has led the way outside of the Dáil in bringing this issue centre stage. We need to say Ni una menos ; that is the cry throughout Latin America against violence against women. It means "Not one woman less". Not one more woman should be lost to violence against women and to gender-based violence. We need massive turnouts on International Women's Day because the complacency is clear.”
“I thank the survivors and the family members of the victims who have campaigned who are gathered here today. I ask them to continue, if they can, with this struggle because every time that any change has happened in this country, on any issue but especially in respect the rights of women or minorities, it has been because of pressure from outside this Dáil. It has never come from within. We saw that with the repeal of the eighth amendment, we saw it with marriage equality and we see it in violence against women. We will have to campaign to hold this Government to account and to make sure that it actually acts on this motion. International Women's Day is our next focal point. On 8 March, there will be marches in Dublin at 1 p.m., in Limerick, Cork and hopefully in other towns and cities as well.”
“I also want to mention the DPP as I did not have time to deal with it. The Director of Public Prosecutions is choosing not to deal with this, and is vetoing the right of people to have their day in court. We saw that with Nikita Hand whom I commend. She bravely took on a multimillionaire celebrity with a massive social media profile. Let us consider the injuries in that situation and the DPP would not take the case. There are serious questions to answer there. Let people have their day in court. I also want to mention the scale of misogynistic attitudes in society. The case of Gisèle Pelicot in France says it all. It was every man, men of all occupations, who abused and raped Gisèle Pelicot in the knowledge that she had been drugged. This is becoming an increasing problem.”
“I have yet to be convinced that any credible evidence is taken from a person's private therapy session. It is third-party information in any case. The Minister actually defended it in the original speech in 2017. The Government talks about a trauma-informed, survivor-centred approach, but nothing in our courts system or legal system provides that. There can be different rules for gender-based violence. Why not? I have absolutely no problem with that. It is a very different type of crime from shoplifting or whatever else so it is not a big deal to have different rules. I agree that Jennie's Law also should be enacted. I did not get time to say that in my original contribution. One of the advantages of that would be to bring shame on the crime of domestic violence. That is the key reason.”
“It does not send a very good signal that the Minister cares about this issue when only one Member from the Government side sat through this debate; it is actually an insult. Obviously, a few Members have come in now for Leaders' Questions. I want to run through some of the issues the Minister of State raised. Regarding the counselling notes, the Minister said earlier that there were no issues raised in the debate at the time, which is not true. Issues were raised by several TDs, including me, at the time. I proposed an amendment stating that we need to ensure this operates as intended and not lead to the disclosure of counselling records becoming the norm. It has become the norm. The Rape Crisis network has confirmed that. I just want to correct the record on that. I will bring forward a Bill on this issue.”
“I apologise; I did not realise I was out of time. I can take this up later. May I just mention that we have the brother of Valerie French here today? It is very important that Valerie's law is moved on and enacted.”
“It is just there; it is a case of take it or leave it. In what other job would one be allowed to just pick or choose whether or not to go to professional development that is absolutely vital to people's lives? The Minister has referred to zero-tolerance strategy. There was so much fanfare about zero tolerance a few years ago following the horrific, tragic killing of Ashling Murphy. There were so many promises that so much would be done. There is not even zero tolerance of violence against women in political parties, so let us be frank here. Even in the Minister's own party, people who have carried out violence against women have been selected. I want to mention other laws that need to be enacted. I am sure the Minister is well aware of Valerie's law. We also have-----”
“However, people have left this in the Government's hands for long enough. The Minister also mentioned, and I want to talk in particular about, the Judicial Council. He said that the Judicial Council is solely responsible for some of these things. No, I absolutely do not accept that the Judicial Council, which is made up solely of judges from the Supreme Court right down, should be left to self-regulate, as if that has worked so well. How is the idea that they should decide what they do a proper system with input from ordinary people? We need accountability. We need training of judges and legal teams about rape myths. That is not compulsory. We put in a parliamentary question about this. There is no monitoring as to how many people do it and there is no record kept of how many people go.”
“It is being done for no other reason. The mere possibility of these notes being used, by the way, is deterring people from pursuing cases and from seeking counselling and is creating huge trauma, so I do not think an amendment will do. We need to outlaw this. For example, in the US there is therapist and client privilege. We need a similar situation here. People have the right to seek help. This is just misogyny writ large. I will move on to the Government's response to the motion. Obviously, we are all happy that the Government is not going to oppose the motion, but I hope it is not just killing it with kindness. The Minister mentioned in the media coverage that some of these things are being looked after by the Government and that we should leave them in its hands. That was kind of the impression given.”
“I have heard our Constitution cited, specifically Article 38.1, which states, "No person should be tried on any criminal charge save in due course of law." How is anything that can be got from a therapy session necessary for the due course of law? I have not heard yet one viable example. We can ascribe a lot of things to Éamon de Valera but I do not think he was sitting down in 1938 writing Article 38.1, thinking, "Must have therapy notes for the right to a fair trial." We have to completely challenge the reality. I have spoken to many representatives from the rape crisis centres and they say that they do not understand why due course is being interpreted in this way and that there is no credible evidence. Let us be frank: this is being done only as a chance to find something, some nugget, to undermine the credibility of the victim.”
“If they do not give their notes, they are told their trial will be delayed and told it will just bring more hassle for themselves, and they therefore just give them. What evidence is procured from a therapy session that is vital to somebody's right to a fair trial? I would die on a ditch for people's right to a fair trial, but the notes are made by a therapist and are not even from the person. They are a therapist's notes of what the person said. Therefore, they are third-party notes. I do not even know why they are admissible. What about the right to privacy? What about the right to seek healthcare, to seek therapeutic care, for yourself? That is in the European laws that are enshrined.”
“A communication was sent around to TDs yesterday. I want to read out a snippet of the words of Hazel. She says she has worked so hard to rebuild herself, to get to know the new her, since the morning she was raped. She talks about the benefit of counselling with the rape crisis team. She says she never knew that "my thoughts, my fears, my shame, my turmoil shared during the safety of my counselling sessions could be shared with ... the person who did this to me." Why is this going on? Seriously. It has increased since 2018, since the change was brought in, since section 19A was brought in. Section 19A is a joke. It has not been used. The onus has been put on the victim to just give their notes.”
“They are written by unqualified people. There is no recognition of the dynamic of gender violence or of the fact that the perpetrator cultivates a persona. There is a brilliant description by one survivor that these references testify "to nothing more than the mastery of manipulation skills the sex offender has". The whole modus operandi of a sex offender is that. A recent change was made whereby people can be cross-examined if they write a reference. That is not enough. That is absolutely worthless. What benefit is it if 35 people traipse up to the witness stand to testify? It could actually be even more damaging. We need to say that these references have no place in court. They are not relevant to a fair trial. The other issue is counselling records. This has emerged as a really traumatising issue for many people.”
“The perpetrators are master manipulators. Nobody knows what they are like in private, in their relationships or in their encounters with people. Two weeks ago, 35 references were trotted out for a garda who had sexually assaulted a woman twice and falsely imprisoned her while on the job in a Garda station. Among those references were some from, we think, gardaí. I have spoken to that woman. She does not know who wrote those references, but it was extremely damaging and traumatising for her. I read yesterday a report of seven testimonies - I think they are changing the name of them now because they know how damaging the term "character reference" is - for a child rapist, somebody 50 years senior to the victim. This is going on every day in the courts. What is the purpose of these references? They are utterly irrelevant.”
“Successive Governments have failed to do anything about this issue and the brutally misogynistic legal system. Any time change is asked for, there is always a compelling reason put forward by the Government as to why it cannot be done. We are told about the Constitution. Why are all these rape myths, like those about clothing, contraception, fake tan, relationships the victim may have had and the fact that they took drugs or drink, allowed daily in our courts? What is the Minister going to do about it? This deeply misogynistic thinking about what women wear, etc., is extremely damaging. A couple of issues have emerged as being particularly prominent for many of the survivors of the court process. I will start with the first, which is character references. We have to begin by saying that gender-based violence is a unique crime.”
“This is seen perfectly in the US, where violent sexual predators are in leading positions in that administration. The ultimate male entitlement is exemplified in femicide, that is, the idea that a man owns and controls a woman's life and that she must be killed. We have to challenge those ideas and the culture of misogyny that lends itself to violence against women and girls. Gender-based violence has a brutal reality and impact on the lives of people. A large majority never report it and those who do report it do so to stop other people. Every time someone is believed or there is victim blaming and a man is praised as being a pillar of society when behind closed doors he is completely different, that is extremely damaging and increases the culture of gender-based violence.”
“The motion outlines the scale of the problem. We have to name the issue clearly because some, such as those, for example, on the far right, are trying to use this issue to stir up racism and division. This is essentially a problem of male violence. It is rooted in the patriarchal family structures created by capitalism, male supremacy, entitlement and gender inequality. It is rooted in the idea that men have the right to control women and their bodies. Macho culture is not decreasing; it is actually increasing. We know the statistics relating to the Internet. It is promoted to young boys within minutes of setting up a TikTok account. Not a thing is being done about that. It suits the system now, as we see writ large in the US, to promote misogyny, homophobia, transphobia and, of course, racism.”
“One of the most positive developments we have seen in the past year is that women and men - we also have male survivors of gender-based violence here today - who go through this process then decide to waive their anonymity. They come out onto the court steps and describe what they have been through. They do that for a reason, namely that they do not want anyone else to go through the same thing. That is why they should not have to do this. Such is the horror of the misogynistic court process and the injustice of our justice system, they are breaking the silence. In the words of the inspirational Gisèle Pelicot, "Shame must change sides". Survivors want today to be a turning point. They thought they had turning points before. Promises were not kept and change did not come, but this has to be a turning point now.”