Call for council for decisions on gender-based violence

Over 40 organisations have called for the establishment of a survivor-led Advisory Council to shape Government decisions on gender-based violence.

A study, commissioned through the Irish Observatory on Violence Against Women, has examined the development of more effective structures for survivor engagement across public bodies.

Established in 2002, the observatory is a network of organisations that monitors Ireland's progress in addressing gender-based violence and chaired by the National Women’s Council (NWC).

The research was based on consultations with survivors, specialist services working in domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV), and policymakers including civil servants and Government departments implementing the Zero Tolerance Strategy.

While many frontline services involve survivors in advocacy and consultation, the report says Government efforts and understanding of survivor engagement were inconsistent across departments.

Survivor engagement has often relied too heavily on episodic testimony, rather than giving survivors sustained influence through advocacy, oversight and decision-making, according to the report.

A central recommendation is the establishment of a survivor-led Lived Experience Advisory Council, which it says should reflect a breadth of perspectives and experiences.

During the consultation leading up to the report, it was suggested that any new engagement structure must be properly funded, rather than diverting resources from support services.

Instead, the Department of Justice and Cuan (established to implement the Government's Zero Tolerance strategy) have been urged to secure multi-annual funding to support individual survivors and specialist organisations already doing advocacy work.

Civil servants predominantly felt that Cuan should lead the new framework, however, survivors and advocacy groups proposed that engagement be embedded across all relevant Government departments rather than confined to one agency.

The report says meaningful reform requires a "whole-of-government" approach and that survivors would help shape decisions on housing, justice, healthcare, education and public services.

It has suggested using "an open call", to ensure that women with different lived experiences of violence, women from diverse and underrepresented groups, such as Traveller, Roma, LGBTQ+, and migrant women, and family members of women killed are all represented.

Survivors should not be expected to recount personal trauma

However, it has warned against "tokenistic consultation"; that survivor engagement must be "intersectional by design".

Participants stressed that survivors should not be expected to repeatedly recount personal trauma, but be recognised as experts whose lived experience can guide systemic reform.

Founder of Survivors Informing Services and Institutions (SiSi) Mary-Louise Lynch pointed out that "no two survivors have the same experience and the proposed framework for engagement and Advisory Council must reflect this".

"It should be structured yet flexible, inclusive of people’s diverse experiences and identities, allowing multiple paths to survivor engagement," she said.

The research looked at initiatives internationally, including in Australia and Wales.

In Australia, the Victorian government established a Victim Survivors Advisory Council, in 2016, to advise on improvements to family violence and sexual violence policy, system and service delivery, and ensure the voices of victim-survivors were included and acted on.

The fifteen people on the Council have been appointed by the Victorian government for rolling three-year terms.

The report published today has also recommended that appointments be on a three-year basis, including time allocated for survivors to be trained and supported to undertake survivor advocacy.

Executive Director of the NWC Corinne Hassan described violence against women as being "at epidemic proportions", with over 65,000 calls to gardaí in 2024, on domestic violence alone.

"We urgently need a complete paradigm shift to address it," she said.

Cuan and Community Foundation Ireland funded the research undertaken by the NWC.