We hope this will be the year for EU-wide action on violence against women – Irish MEP in The Journal

2023 HAS THE potential to be another deadly year for women. The killing of Bruna Fonseca in Cork is yet another tragic case of a brutal death of a woman in Ireland.

Alongside Bruna, we remember all other victims, including Natalie McNally, Jennifer Poole, Shannon Crean, Larisa Serban and Ashling Murphy.

The National Women’s Council described 2022 as “a difficult year for women” while statistics from Women’s Aid show that 2022 was the worst year in a decade for femicide with 11 women killed in violent circumstances over the past 12 months. In total, 254 women have died violently in Ireland since 1996.

Across Europe the situation is similar. In France, for example, over 100 women were killed by their partners or ex-partners in 2022. In Spain, nine women were violently killed in December alone. According to the UN, across the world, more than five women or girls were killed every hour by someone in their own family in 2021.

As we remember the victims, we should also recall that every 10 years the equivalent of a city the size of Marseille, Amsterdam or Zagreb disappears from the world. It is estimated that 87,000 women worldwide are being killed each year just because they are women.

Read the full story here.