Some Men Abuse     All Men Can Help

Published: Thursday, September 02, 2010

Announcing New Alliance To Target Irish Men in Ending Violence Against Women

Three leading national organisations today (31st August 2010) joined forces for the first time to rally Irish men to become part of the solution to ending violence against women.

Rape Crisis Network Ireland (representative group for Rape Crisis Centres), SAFE Ireland (representative group for women's frontline domestic violence services) and the Men's Development Network will work as allies to encourage Irish men to stand up and say that violence against women is an unacceptable crime.

The new alliance and campaign, under the banner The Other Half, believes that the work to end violence against women can only be fully tackled by harnessing the energy, support and understanding of the additional 50% of the population.

Men make up half the population. However, for a variety of reasons, violence against women has been largely tackled by women and has, by default, been seen as a women's issue. It is time to move on from this and to recognise men as potentially powerful allies in the fight against gender based violence, says the new alliance.

Violence against women is an enormous problem in Ireland with thousands of women experiencing rape, physical assaults, emotional and financial abuse and many other forms of exploitation everyday.

However, while some men abuse women, all men can help end the violence," said Sharon O'Halloran, Director of SAFE Ireland. The vast majority of men are not perpetrators of violence and are concerned for the safety of the women they care about. They are potentially powerful allies and activists against violence."

"We will be asking Irish men not to commit violence in the first place, not to condone violence and, critically, to speak out in the face of violence," Fiona Neary, Director of RCNI, added.

Alan O'Neill, Director of the Men's Development Network, explained that men have largely ignored the issue of violence against women and have opted out from being part of the solution. "In our experience, men ignore violence for fear of being identified as being perpetrators or for fear of saying the wrong thing," he said. "Also, men have been excluded to date from the work to end violence for very practical reasons - they are the perpetrators in the large majority of gender based violence. While we can never forget that men are the problem we must also recognise that men can be a part of the solution."

Campaign plans for The Other Half will be launched formally later in the Autumn.

The Three Allies are:

• - Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) is the national representative body for Rape Crisis Centre's in Ireland. It is also the national information and resource centre for all aspects of sexual violence.
• - Safe Ireland is the national representative body for 41 frontline women's domestic violence services in Ireland ranging from refuges and emergency accommodation to helplines, counselling and advocacy services.
• - The Men's Development Network is a national organisation working with men to engage with the issues facing themselves, their families and their communities.

For more information please contact:

The Men's Development Network: 051-844260/1 or www.mens-network.net
Rape Crisis Network Ireland: 091-563676/7 or www.rcni.ie
SAFE Ireland: 0906 -479078 or www.safeireland.ie