Ministers from member states of the Council of Europe meeting at a conference in Dublin have backed the Dublin Declaration on domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence.

Ministers responsible for addressing the issue – including the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee – gathered for the two-day event last week.

The conference was entitled ‘No safe haven: Integrated prevention measures to end domestic, sexual and gender-based violence’.

The ministers discussed changing social norms to tackle violence against women, changing the behaviour of men who have been violent, and training professionals to work with victims or perpetrators.

Involving men and boys

The declaration adopted at the end of the conference was backed by 38 of the 46 countries in attendance.

It commits the signatories to actively promoting an institutional and political culture that rejects gender-based discrimination and violence, sexism, gender stereotypes, and gendered power dynamics in the public and private sector.

The 38 countries also pledged to ensure that strategies aimed at preventing and combating violence against women also addressed “the specific role of men and boys in preventing violence against women, and develop specific measures aimed to involve them”.

The declaration also includes commitments to include material linked to issues of equality between men and women in the official curriculum of all levels of education. There is also a pledge to encourage training of relevant professionals – including those in the criminal-justice system.

‘Zero tolerance’

Minister McEntee said that the conference had “solidified” a collective commitment to tackling domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence across the continent.

“There should be zero tolerance in any society for this kind of behaviour. I want to see this change in Ireland and I want to see this change across Europe,” she said.

The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human-rights organisation, and all EU states are members. All council member states have signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights.