Logo Assembly Logo Hemicycle

Women victims of domestic violence: ‘a civil war is going on in our backyards’

25/11/2010 Equality and Non-Discrimination

José Mendes Bota (Portugal, EPP/CD), Chair of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, made the following statement on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women:

“I have some colleagues and friends who don’t understand why I ‘waste’ so much time fighting for women’s rights and against the violence they face. Perhaps I should be talking about the budget deficit, taxes or construction instead? And yet it is a fact that tens of thousands of women around the world are murdered every year by their husbands, partners or ex-partners simply because they are women, let alone those who are specifically targeted in warfare and other extreme situations. In terms of numbers of victims alone, this is the equivalent, every month, of more than the number who died in the 9/11 attacks in New York! There is a civil war going on in our backyards. And if that isn’t worth talking about, I don’t know what matters anymore.”