SDLP leader Claire Hanna has called for an “urgent” response to the femicide crisis in Nothern Ireland.
Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday afternoon, the MP for South Belfast and Mid Down raised the “damning statistics” relating to attacks against women and girls in the North.
“Violence against women and girls demands an immediate and deep response,” Ms Hanna said,
“Recent murders of women have contributed to a femicide rate twice as high as Britain,” she added.
SDLP Leader Claire Hanna made the call in Westminster“We need to think very deeply about the society and culture that is manifesting in this way.”
Earlier this month 22-year-old Mary Ward was found dead in her Belfast home.
She was the fourth woman to be murdered in Northern Ireland in a six-week period.
Speaking at the time, PSNI Detective Chief Superintendent Lindsay Fisher said the rate of violent crimes against women in the North was “appalling”.
Over the past eight years, 42 females have been killed in the North.
The victims were all aged between 23 months and 83 years old and in all but one of the cases the perpetrator or the chief suspect was male.
"Those damning statistics should give us all pause, but behind them are 42 people who had their own hopes and dreams, before their lives were so cruelly taken from them,” Ms Hanna said this week.
“This is an issue that demands a cross governmental response, with discussion and behavioural change and in all parts of society, urgently,” she added
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